Structured Data In A Business Networking Feed

ABSTRACT

Disclosed are systems, apparatus, methods, and computer readable media for presenting updates to associated records to publish on an information feed in an on-demand database service environment. In one embodiment, data is received at a computing device configured to provide computing services via a network. The data may be separated into a plurality of data entries to define structured data. Each data entry may have a plurality of data fields. Each data field may be capable of being assigned a respective data value. The structured data may be stored in a database in an on-demand computing services environment. References to the structured data may be capable of being stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database. The feed items may be capable of being published in an information feed displayed on a display device.

PRIORITY AND RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims priority to Provisional U.S. Patent Application61/391,246, filed on Oct. 8, 2010, entitled “Database in a BusinessNetworking Feed,” by Agrawal, et al., which is incorporated herein byreference in its entirety and for all purposes.

COPYRIGHT NOTICE

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialwhich is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent documentor the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and TrademarkOffice patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyrightrights whatsoever.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure relates generally to on-demand services providedover a data network such as the Internet, and more specifically todatabases in a business networking service.

BACKGROUND

“Cloud computing” services provide shared resources, software, andinformation to computers and other devices upon request. In cloudcomputing environments, software can be accessible over the Internetrather than installed locally on in-house computer systems. Cloudcomputing typically involves over-the-Internet provision of dynamicallyscalable and often virtualized resources. Technological details can beabstracted from the users, who no longer have need for expertise in, orcontrol over, the technology infrastructure “in the cloud” that supportsthem.

Database resources can be provided in a cloud computing context.However, using conventional database management techniques, it isdifficult to know about the activity of other users of a database systemin the cloud or other network. For example, the actions of a particularuser, such as a salesperson, on a database resource may be important tothe user's boss. The user can create a report about what the user hasdone and send it to the boss, but such reports may be inefficient, nottimely, and incomplete. Also, it may be difficult to identify otherusers who might benefit from the information in the report.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The included drawings are for illustrative purposes and serve only toprovide examples of possible structures and process operations for thedisclosed inventive systems, apparatus, and methods for providingstructured data objects for an information feed in an on-demandcomputing service environment. These drawings in no way limit anychanges in form and detail that may be made by one skilled in the artwithout departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosedembodiments.

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an example of an environmentwherein an on-demand database service might be used.

FIG. 1B illustrates a block diagram of an embodiment of elements of FIG.1A and various possible interconnections between these elements.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram 200 illustrating architectural componentsof an on-demand service environment, in accordance with one embodiment.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram further illustrating architecturalcomponents of an on-demand service environment, in accordance with oneembodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method 300 for tracking updates to a recordstored in a database system according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of components of a database system performinga method for tracking an update to a record according to one or moreembodiments.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 500 for tracking actions of a user ofa database system according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method 600 for creating a news feed frommessages created by a first user about a record or another useraccording to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according to oneor more embodiments.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 9A shows a plurality of tables that may be used in tracking eventsand creating feeds according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart illustrating a method 900 for automaticallysubscribing a user to an object in a database system according toembodiments.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method 1000 for saving information to feedtracking tables according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method 1100 for reading a feed item as partof generating a feed for display according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method 1200 for reading a feed item of aprofile feed for display according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a method 1300 of storing event information forefficient generation of feed items to display in a feed according to oneor more embodiments.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method 1400 for creating a custom feed forusers of a database system using filtering criteria according to one ormore embodiments.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method 1400 for creating a custom feed forusers of a database system using filtering criteria according to one ormore embodiments.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a method 1500 for performing a structured datalifecycle according to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method 1600 for processing structured dataaccording to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 17 is a flowchart of a method 1700 for analyzing structured dataaccording to one or more embodiments.

FIG. 18 is a database configuration diagram 1800 of a database forstoring structured data according to one or more embodiments.

FIGS. 19-29 show images of user interfaces involving structured dataaccording to one or more embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Examples of systems, apparatus, and methods according to the disclosedembodiments are described in this section. These examples are beingprovided solely to add context and aid in the understanding of thedisclosed embodiments. It will thus be apparent to one skilled in theart that implementations may be practiced without some or all of thesespecific details. In other instances, well known process/method stepshave not been described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarilyobscuring embodiments. Other applications are possible, such that thefollowing examples should not be taken as definitive or limiting eitherin scope or setting.

In the following detailed description, references are made to theaccompanying drawings, which form a part of the description and in whichare shown, by way of illustration, specific embodiments. Although theseembodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable one skilled inthe art to practice the disclosed implementations, it is understood thatthese examples are not limiting, such that other embodiments may be usedand changes may be made without departing from their spirit and scope.For example, the blocks of methods shown and described herein are notnecessarily performed in the order indicated. It should also beunderstood that the methods may include more or fewer blocks than areindicated. In some implementations, blocks described herein as separateblocks may be combined. Conversely, what may be described herein as asingle block may be implemented in multiple blocks.

Various embodiments described or referenced herein are directed todifferent methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products forreceiving structured data to publish on an information feed in anon-demand database service environment. In some embodiments, thedisclosed methods, apparatus, systems, and computer program products maybe configured or designed for use in a multi-tenant databaseenvironment.

The “following” of a database record, as described in greater detailbelow, allows a user to track the progress of that record. Updates tothe record, also referred to herein as changes, can occur and be notedon the record's information feed as well as the news feed of a usersubscribed to the record. With the disclosed embodiments, updates areoften presented as an item or entry in the feed, but can also bepresented as a collection of individual of items. Types of such updatescan include field changes in a data record, posts such as explicit textor characters submitted by a user, status updates, uploaded files, andlinks to other data or records. Also, one type of update is the creationof the record itself. Updates can also be group-related, e.g., a changeto group status information for a group of which the user is a member.Users following the record are capable of viewing updates on the user'sfeed.

The disclosed implementations provide for uploading structured data toan organization-specific social networking system. Implementations ofthe disclosed systems, apparatus, and methods are also configured toprocess, analyze, and share the structured data.

In some embodiments, techniques are provided for sharing data using anorganization-specific social networking feed. Users may uploadstructured and collaborate on it in the form of shared files. In someinstances, techniques may be employed by end users, such as businessusers and social networking users, who may not be as technicallysophisticated as administrators or developers.

In some embodiments, uploaded data and metadata may take the form of adatabase object. The uploaded data may be divided into rows and columns.Rows may correspond to data entries, while columns may correspond todata fields storing values for the data entries. Alternately, columnsmay correspond to data entries, while rows may correspond to data fieldsstoring values for the data entries. Metadata may define data types,column or row names, a data object name, formulas for field values, orany other information.

In some embodiments, end users may be able to customize user-createdobjects. For example, users may perform platform customizationoperations such as adding new columns or fields, deleting columns orfields, moving the order of columns, modifying layouts, creatingfiltered list views, sharing an object, reporting on an object, addingvalidation rules, or other types of customization. At the same time,some users may be restricted from performing certain types ofcustomizations, for example for security or complexity reasons.

In some embodiments, an on-demand database or spreadsheet editor may beprovided. Using the on-demand editor, structured data uploaded to thesocial networking system may be edited directly via a user interfacecomponent provided in a web page. Users may have access to a singlerecord form layout and/or a flexible multi-record grid. Users may haveaccess to simple and powerful tools for manipulating, organizing, andsharing data.

Some embodiments may include tools for the simplified sharing ofstructured data. For example, since objects may be created and/ormanaged by end users, end users may also be able to share this data withtheir colleagues. Sharing of these structured files, spreadsheets, ordatabases may work much like sharing other files in theorganization-specific social network. For example, a user may be able toupload a database to the user's profile, to a group, to a data record,or to some other construct of the social network.

In some embodiments, uploading data to the social networking system mayallow a user to transform local data stored on the user's computer toshared data that may be collaborated on with other users via the socialnetworking system. That is, rather than separately editing localversions of data, users can edit or view a shared version of the data.Further, the data may be stored directly within the system (e.g., in adatabase system), where it can be accessed, shared, viewed, edited, andused more directly than when the data is locked away in files.

In some embodiments, changes to the structured data may trigger updatesvia the social networking system. Updates may inform the followers aboutthe addition, deletion, and/or modification of records. For example, aninformation feed may include indications that a data object was added tothe system, that new data entries were added to an existing data object,or that data fields within an existing data entry were changed. Feedsmay be at record level, object level, or both. For example, updates suchas “Opportunity X is now closed” or “Three new Opportunities were justadded by John Doe” may be sent. Users may be able to adjust these feedsvia settings.

In one example of the use of structured data in a social networkingsystem, Andrea and Scott are employees of a fictional company, BlutheReal Estate Company. Andrea works in the marketing department as anevent coordinator on a team of 20 people. Andrea is always looking fornew ways to improve her day-to-day tasks. She is currently working withher team to plan an upcoming launch event for the new developmentproject at Sutton Valley.

The planning of this event requires that she and her team manage lots ofdata together, such as purchases, timelines, vendors and deliverables.The team uses spreadsheets to track their data. Until now, the team hascreated many revisions of the list of vendors and their deliverables.

However, the team has no idea when data has changed and who has thelatest version, unless they email the files to each other to stay up todate. There is also no convenient way to link the spreadsheet data withtheir existing data, such as existing data stored in an on-demandservice environment. For example, there is no convenient way to link thespreadsheet data with details on the vendor accounts, account contacts,account contracts, past interactions with venders, and other existingdata.

In some embodiments, a social networking database service may give usersthe power to use aspects of an on-demand computing services environmentwith little information technology (IT) investment. For example, Andreacan upload her existing spreadsheet to an organization-specific socialnetworking environment group.

In some embodiments, Andrea can then access her data in a variety oflayouts such as a traditional spreadsheet format or in a layoutspecified by the on-demand service environment. When the spreadsheet isuploaded to the group, Andrea's team members may be notified about thespreadsheet in their Chatter feeds. This object and data may beautomatically shared with all the members of her group.

In some embodiments, Andrea can collaborate on the data with coworkerssuch as Scott. Scott may view the data about vendors being used for thelaunch of this event. Scott may also share the data with others. Forexample, Scott can share the data with his Chatter followers. As anotherexample, Scott can share the data with specific Chatter groups. As yetanother example, Scott can also share the data with other individuals inthe organization.

In some embodiments, Andrea can move structured data from outside of thecloud into the on-demand service environment. When this data is storedin the cloud, Andrea and her team can use the power of the on-demandservice environment for this data. For example, Andrea or Scott may beable to add new columns or custom fields to the structured data. Asanother example, they may be able to collaborate on validation rules. Asyet another example, they may be able to build business processes forthe structured data using a tool such as a visual process manager. Asstill another example, they may be able to build charts to report otherdata.

In some embodiments, users can create collaborative, real-time, and/ormobile applications to manage data rather than e-mailing spreadsheetsback and forth. Users may be able to modify the application with minimalIT department involvement. Users may be more productive because dataflows directly through the on-demand service environment.

These and other embodiments may be implemented by various types ofhardware, software, firmware, etc. For example, some embodiments may beimplemented, at least in part, by machine-readable media that includeprogram instructions, state information, etc., for performing variousservices and operations described herein. Examples of programinstructions include both machine code, such as produced by a compiler,and files containing higher-level code that may be executed by thecomputer using an interpreter. Examples of machine-readable mediainclude, but are not limited to, magnetic media such as hard disks,floppy disks, and magnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks;magneto-optical media; and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store program instructions, such as read-only memorydevices (“ROM”) and random access memory (“RAM”). These and otherfeatures and benefits of the disclosed embodiments will be described inmore detail below with reference to the associated drawings.

The term “multi-tenant database system” can refer to those systems inwhich various elements of hardware and software of the database systemmay be shared by one or more customers. For example, a given applicationserver may simultaneously process requests for a great number ofcustomers, and a given database table may store rows for a potentiallymuch greater number of customers. The term “query plan” generally refersto one or more steps used to access information in a database system.

A “user profile” or “user's profile” is generally configured to storeand maintain data about the user of the database system. The data caninclude general information, such as title, phone number, a photo, abiographical summary, and a status (e.g., text describing what the useris currently doing). As mentioned below, the data can include messagescreated by other users. Where there are multiple tenants, a user istypically associated with a particular tenant. For example, a user couldbe a salesperson of a company that is a tenant of the database systemthat provides a database service.

The term “record” generally refers to a data entity, such as an instanceof a data object created by a user of the database service, for example,about a particular (actual or potential) business relationship orproject. The data object can have a data structure defined by thedatabase service (a standard object) or defined by a subscriber (customobject). For example, a record can be for a business partner orpotential business partner (e.g. a client, vendor, distributor, etc.) ofthe user, and can include an entire company, subsidiaries, or contactsat the company. As another example, a record can be a project that theuser is working on, such as an opportunity (e.g. a possible sale) withan existing partner, or a project that the user is trying to get. In oneembodiment implementing a multi-tenant database, all of the records forthe tenants have an identifier stored in a common table. A record hasdata fields that are defined by the structure of the object (e.g. fieldsof certain data types and purposes). A record can also have customfields defined by a user. A field can be another record or include linksthereto, thereby providing a parent-child relationship between therecords.

The term “feed” includes a combination (e.g. a list) of feed items orentries with various types of information and data. Such feed items canbe stored and maintained in one or more database tables, e.g., as rowsin the table(s), that can be accessed to retrieve relevant informationto be presented as part of a displayed feed. The term “feed item” (orfeed element) refers to information about a user (“profile feed”) of thedatabase or about a record (“record feed”) in the database. A userfollowing the user or record can receive the associated feed items. Insome implementations, the feed items from all of the followed users andrecords can be combined into a single feed for the user.

As examples, a feed item can be a message, such as a user-generated postof text data, and a feed tracked update to a record or profile, such asa change to a field of the record. A feed can be a combination ofmessages and feed tracked updates. Messages include text created by auser, and may include other data as well. Examples of messages includeposts, user status updates, and comments. Messages can be created for auser's profile or for a record. Posts can be created by various users,potentially any user, although some restrictions can be applied. As anexample, posts can be made to a wall section of a user's profile (whichcan include a number of recent posts) or a section of a record thatincludes multiple posts. The posts can be organized in chronologicalorder when displayed in a graphical user interface (GUI) as part of afeed. In contrast to a post, a user status update changes a status of auser and can be made by that user or an administrator. Other similarsections of a user's profile can also include an “About” section. Arecord can also have a status, whose update can be provided by an ownerof the record or other users having suitable write access permissions tothe record. The owner can be a single user, multiple users, or a group.In one embodiment, there is only one status for a record. In oneembodiment, a comment can be made on any feed item. In anotherembodiment, comments are organized as a list explicitly tied to aparticular feed tracked update, post, or status update. In thisembodiment, comments may not be listed in the first layer (in ahierarchal sense) of feed items, but listed as a second layer branchingfrom a particular first layer feed item.

A “feed tracked update,” also referred to herein as a “feed update,”generally refers to data representing an event, and can include textgenerated by the database system in response to the event, to beprovided as one or more feed items for possible inclusion in one or morefeeds. In one embodiment, the data can initially be stored, and then thedatabase system can later use the data to create text for describing theevent. Both the data and/or the text can be a feed tracked update, asused herein. In various embodiments, an event can be an update of arecord and/or can be triggered by a specific action by a user. Whichactions trigger an event can be configurable. Which events have feedtracked updates created and which feed updates are sent to which userscan also be configurable. Messages and feed updates can be stored as afield or child object of the record. For example, the feed can be storedas a child object of the record.

A “group” is generally a collection of users. In some aspects, the groupmay be defined as users with a same or similar attribute, or bymembership. In one embodiment, a “group feed” includes any feed itemabout any user in a group. In another embodiment, the group feedincludes feed items that are about the group as a whole. In oneimplementation, the feed items for a group are only posts and comments.

An “entity feed” or “record feed” generally refers to a feed of feeditems about a particular record in the database, such as feed trackedupdates about changes to the record and posts made by users about therecord. An entity feed can be composed of any type of feed item. Such afeed can be displayed on a page (e.g. a web page) associated with therecord (e.g. a home page of the record). As used herein, a “profilefeed” is a feed of feed items about a particular user. In oneembodiment, the feed items for a profile feed are posts and commentsthat other users make about or send to the particular user, and statusupdates made by the user. Such a profile feed can be displayed on a pageassociated with the particular user. In another embodiment, feed itemsin a profile feed could include posts made by the particular user andfeed tracked changes (feed tracked updates) initiated based on actionsof the particular user.

I. General Overview

Systems, apparatus, and methods are provided for implementing enterpriselevel social and business information networking. Such embodiments canprovide more efficient use of a database system. For instance, a user ofa database system may not easily know when important information in thedatabase has changed, e.g., about a project or client. Embodiments canprovide feed tracked updates about such changes and other events,thereby keeping users informed.

By way of example, a user can update a record (e.g. an opportunity suchas a possible sale of 1000 computers). Once the record update has beenmade, a feed tracked update about the record update can thenautomatically be sent (e.g. in a feed) to anyone subscribing to theopportunity or to the user. Thus, the user does not need to contact amanager regarding the change in the opportunity, since the feed trackedupdate about the update is sent via a feed right to the manager's feedpage (or other page).

Next, mechanisms and methods for providing systems implementingenterprise level social and business information networking will bedescribed with reference to example embodiments. First, an overview ofan example database system is described, and then examples of trackingevents for a record, actions of a user, and messages about a user orrecord are described. Various embodiments about the data structure offeeds, customizing feeds, user selection of records and users to follow,generating feeds, and displaying feeds are also described.

II. System Overview

FIG. 1A illustrates a block diagram of an environment 10 wherein anon-demand database service might be used. Environment 10 may includeuser systems 12, network 14, system 16, processor system 17, applicationplatform 18, network interface 20, tenant data storage 22, system datastorage 24, program code 26, and process space 28. In other embodiments,environment 10 may not have all of the components listed and/or may haveother elements instead of, or in addition to, those listed above.

Environment 10 is an environment in which an on-demand database serviceexists. User system 12 may be any machine or system that is used by auser to access a database user system. For example, any of user systems12 can be a handheld computing device, a mobile phone, a laptopcomputer, a work station, and/or a network of computing devices. Asillustrated in FIG. 1A (and in more detail in FIG. 1B) user systems 12might interact via a network 14 with an on-demand database service,which is system 16.

An on-demand database service, such as system 16, is a database systemthat is made available to outside users that do not need to necessarilybe concerned with building and/or maintaining the database system, butinstead may be available for their use when the users need the databasesystem (e.g., on the demand of the users). Some on-demand databaseservices may store information from one or more tenants stored intotables of a common database image to form a multi-tenant database system(MTS). Accordingly, “on-demand database service 16” and “system 16” willbe used interchangeably herein. A database image may include one or moredatabase objects. A relational database management system (RDBMS) or theequivalent may execute storage and retrieval of information against thedatabase object(s). Application platform 18 may be a framework thatallows the applications of system 16 to run, such as the hardware and/orsoftware, e.g., the operating system. In an embodiment, on-demanddatabase service 16 may include an application platform 18 that enablescreation, managing and executing one or more applications developed bythe provider of the on-demand database service, users accessing theon-demand database service via user systems 12, or third partyapplication developers accessing the on-demand database service via usersystems 12.

The users of user systems 12 may differ in their respective capacities,and the capacity of a particular user system 12 might be entirelydetermined by permissions (permission levels) for the current user. Forexample, where a salesperson is using a particular user system 12 tointeract with system 16, that user system has the capacities allotted tothat salesperson. However, while an administrator is using that usersystem to interact with system 16, that user system has the capacitiesallotted to that administrator. In systems with a hierarchical rolemodel, users at one permission level may have access to applications,data, and database information accessible by a lower permission leveluser, but may not have access to certain applications, databaseinformation, and data accessible by a user at a higher permission level.Thus, different users will have different capabilities with regard toaccessing and modifying application and database information, dependingon a user's security or permission level, also called authorization.

Network 14 is any network or combination of networks of devices thatcommunicate with one another. For example, network 14 can be any one orany combination of a LAN (local area network), WAN (wide area network),telephone network, wireless network, point-to-point network, starnetwork, token ring network, hub network, or other appropriateconfiguration. As the most common type of computer network in currentuse is a TCP/IP (Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol)network, such as the global internetwork of networks often referred toas the “Internet” with a capital “I,” that network will be used in manyof the examples herein. However, it should be understood that thenetworks that the present embodiments might use are not so limited,although TCP/IP is a frequently implemented protocol.

User systems 12 might communicate with system 16 using TCP/IP and, at ahigher network level, use other common Internet protocols tocommunicate, such as HTTP, FTP, AFS, WAP, etc. In an example where HTTPis used, user system 12 might include an HTTP client commonly referredto as a “browser” for sending and receiving HTTP messages to and from anHTTP server at system 16. Such an HTTP server might be implemented asthe sole network interface between system 16 and network 14, but othertechniques might be used as well or instead. In some implementations,the interface between system 16 and network 14 includes load sharingfunctionality, such as round-robin HTTP request distributors to balanceloads and distribute incoming HTTP requests evenly over a plurality ofservers. At least as for the users that are accessing that server, eachof the plurality of servers has access to the MTS' data; however, otheralternative configurations may be used instead.

In one embodiment, system 16, shown in FIG. 1A, implements a web-basedcustomer relationship management (CRM) system. For example, in oneembodiment, system 16 includes application servers configured toimplement and execute CRM software applications as well as providerelated data, code, forms, webpages and other information to and fromuser systems 12 and to store to, and retrieve from, a database systemrelated data, objects, and Webpage content. With a multi-tenant system,data for multiple tenants may be stored in the same physical databaseobject, however, tenant data typically is arranged so that data of onetenant is kept logically separate from that of other tenants so that onetenant does not have access to another tenant's data, unless such datais expressly shared. In certain embodiments, system 16 implementsapplications other than, or in addition to, a CRM application. Forexample, system 16 may provide tenant access to multiple hosted(standard and custom) applications, including a CRM application. User(or third party developer) applications, which may or may not includeCRM, may be supported by the application platform 18, which managescreation, storage of the applications into one or more database objectsand executing of the applications in a virtual machine in the processspace of the system 16.

One arrangement for elements of system 16 is shown in FIG. 1A, includinga network interface 20, application platform 18, tenant data storage 22for tenant data 23, system data storage 24 for system data 25 accessibleto system 16 and possibly multiple tenants, program code 26 forimplementing various functions of system 16, and a process space 28 forexecuting MTS system processes and tenant-specific processes, such asrunning applications as part of an application hosting service.Additional processes that may execute on system 16 include databaseindexing processes.

Several elements in the system shown in FIG. 1A include conventional,well-known elements that are explained only briefly here. For example,each user system 12 could include a desktop personal computer,workstation, laptop, PDA, cell phone, or any wireless access protocol(WAP) enabled device or any other computing device capable ofinterfacing directly or indirectly to the Internet or other networkconnection. User system 12 typically runs an HTTP client, e.g., abrowsing program, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser,Netscape's Navigator browser, Opera's browser, or a WAP-enabled browserin the case of a cell phone, PDA or other wireless device, or the like,allowing a user (e.g., subscriber of the multi-tenant database system)of user system 12 to access, process and view information, pages andapplications available to it from system 16 over network 14. Each usersystem 12 also typically includes one or more user interface devices,such as a keyboard, a mouse, trackball, touch pad, touch screen, pen orthe like, for interacting with a graphical user interface (GUI) providedby the browser on a display (e.g., a monitor screen, LCD display, etc.)in conjunction with pages, forms, applications and other informationprovided by system 16 or other systems or servers. For example, the userinterface device can be used to access data and applications hosted bysystem 16, and to perform searches on stored data, and otherwise allow auser to interact with various GUI pages that may be presented to a user.As discussed above, embodiments are suitable for use with the Internet,which refers to a specific global internetwork of networks. However, itshould be understood that other networks can be used instead of theInternet, such as an intranet, an extranet, a virtual private network(VPN), a non-TCP/IP based network, any LAN or WAN or the like.

According to one embodiment, each user system 12 and all of itscomponents are operator configurable using applications, such as abrowser, including computer code run using a central processing unitsuch as an Intel Pentium® processor or the like. Similarly, system 16(and additional instances of an MTS, where more than one is present) andall of their components might be operator configurable usingapplication(s) including computer code to run using a central processingunit such as processor system 17, which may include an Intel Pentium®processor or the like, and/or multiple processor units. A computerprogram product embodiment includes a machine-readable storage medium(media) having instructions stored thereon/in which can be used toprogram a computer to perform any of the processes of the embodimentsdescribed herein. Computer code for operating and configuring system 16to intercommunicate and to process webpages, applications and other dataand media content as described herein are preferably downloaded andstored on a hard disk, but the entire program code, or portions thereof,may also be stored in any other volatile or non-volatile memory mediumor device as is well known, such as a ROM or RAM, or provided on anymedia capable of storing program code, such as any type of rotatingmedia including floppy disks, optical discs, digital versatile disk(DVD), compact disk (CD), microdrive, and magneto-optical disks, andmagnetic or optical cards, nanosystems (including molecular memory ICs),or any type of media or device suitable for storing instructions and/ordata. Additionally, the entire program code, or portions thereof, may betransmitted and downloaded from a software source over a transmissionmedium, e.g., over the Internet, or from another server, as is wellknown, or transmitted over any other conventional network connection asis well known (e.g., extranet, VPN, LAN, etc.) using any communicationmedium and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, HTTP, HTTPS, Ethernet, etc.) as arewell known. It will also be appreciated that computer code forimplementing embodiments of the present invention can be implemented inany programming language that can be executed on a client system and/orserver or server system such as, for example, C, C++, HTML, any othermarkup language, Java™, JavaScript, ActiveX, any other scriptinglanguage, such as VBScript, and many other programming languages as arewell known may be used. (Java™ is a trademark of Sun Microsystems,Inc.).

According to one embodiment, each system 16 is configured to providewebpages, forms, applications, data and media content to user (client)systems 12 to support the access by user systems 12 as tenants of system16. As such, system 16 provides security mechanisms to keep eachtenant's data separate unless the data is shared. If more than one MTSis used, they may be located in close proximity to one another (e.g., ina server farm located in a single building or campus), or they may bedistributed at locations remote from one another (e.g., one or moreservers located in city A and one or more servers located in city B). Asused herein, each MTS could include one or more logically and/orphysically connected servers distributed locally or across one or moregeographic locations. Additionally, the term “server” is meant toinclude a computer system, including processing hardware and processspace(s), and an associated storage system and database application(e.g., OODBMS or RDBMS) as is well known in the art. It should also beunderstood that “server system” and “server” are often usedinterchangeably herein. Similarly, the database object described hereincan be implemented as single databases, a distributed database, acollection of distributed databases, a database with redundant online oroffline backups or other redundancies, etc., and might include adistributed database or storage network and associated processingintelligence.

FIG. 1B also illustrates environment 10. However, in FIG. 1B elements ofsystem 16 and various interconnections in an embodiment are furtherillustrated. FIG. 1B shows that user system 12 may include processorsystem 12A, memory system 12B, input system 12C, and output system 12D.FIG. 1B shows network 14 and system 16. FIG. 1B also shows that system16 may include tenant data storage 22, tenant data 23, system datastorage 24, system data 25, User Interface (UI) 30, Application ProgramInterface (API) 32, PL/SOQL 34, save routines 36, application setupmechanism 38, applications servers 1001-100N, system process space 102,tenant process spaces 104, tenant management process space 110, tenantstorage area 112, user storage 114, and application metadata 116. Inother embodiments, environment 10 may not have the same elements asthose listed above and/or may have other elements instead of, or inaddition to, those listed above.

User system 12, network 14, system 16, tenant data storage 22, andsystem data storage 24 were discussed above in FIG. 1A. Regarding usersystem 12, processor system 12A may be any combination of one or moreprocessors. Memory system 12B may be any combination of one or morememory devices, short term, and/or long term memory. Input system 12Cmay be any combination of input devices, such as one or more keyboards,mice, trackballs, scanners, cameras, and/or interfaces to networks.Output system 12D may be any combination of output devices, such as oneor more monitors, printers, and/or interfaces to networks. As shown byFIG. 1B, system 16 may include a network interface 20 (of FIG. 1A)implemented as a set of HTTP application servers 100, an applicationplatform 18, tenant data storage 22, and system data storage 24. Alsoshown is system process space 102, including individual tenant processspaces 104 and a tenant management process space 110. Each applicationserver 100 may be configured to tenant data storage 22 and the tenantdata 23 therein, and system data storage 24 and the system data 25therein to serve requests of user systems 12. The tenant data 23 mightbe divided into individual tenant storage areas 112, which can be eithera physical arrangement and/or a logical arrangement of data. Within eachtenant storage area 112, user storage 114 and application metadata 116might be similarly allocated for each user. For example, a copy of auser's most recently used (MRU) items might be stored to user storage114. Similarly, a copy of MRU items for an entire organization that is atenant might be stored to tenant storage area 112. A UI 30 provides auser interface and an API 32 provides an application programmerinterface to system 16 resident processes to users and/or developers atuser systems 12. The tenant data and the system data may be stored invarious databases, such as one or more Oracle databases.

Application platform 18 includes an application setup mechanism 38 thatsupports application developers' creation and management ofapplications, which may be saved as metadata into tenant data storage 22by save routines 36 for execution by subscribers as one or more tenantprocess spaces 104 managed by tenant management process 110 for example.Invocations to such applications may be coded using PL/SOQL 34 thatprovides a programming language style interface extension to API 32. Adetailed description of some PL/SOQL language embodiments is discussedin commonly owned U.S. Provisional Patent Application 60/828,192entitled, PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR EXTENDING APIS TOEXECUTE IN CONJUNCTION WITH DATABASE APIS, by Craig Weissman, filed Oct.4, 2006, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety andfor all purposes. Invocations to applications may be detected by one ormore system processes, which manage retrieving application metadata 116for the subscriber making the invocation and executing the metadata asan application in a virtual machine.

Each application server 100 may be communicably coupled to databasesystems, e.g., having access to system data 25 and tenant data 23, via adifferent network connection. For example, one application server 1001might be coupled via the network 14 (e.g., the Internet), anotherapplication server 100N−1 might be coupled via a direct network link,and another application server 100N might be coupled by yet a differentnetwork connection. Transfer Control Protocol and Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) are typical protocols for communicating between applicationservers 100 and the database system. However, it will be apparent to oneskilled in the art that other transport protocols may be used tooptimize the system depending on the network interconnect used.

In certain embodiments, each application server 100 is configured tohandle requests for any user associated with any organization that is atenant. Because it is desirable to be able to add and remove applicationservers from the server pool at any time for any reason, there ispreferably no server affinity for a user and/or organization to aspecific application server 100. In one embodiment, therefore, aninterface system implementing a load balancing function (e.g., an F5Big-IP load balancer) is communicably coupled between the applicationservers 100 and the user systems 12 to distribute requests to theapplication servers 100. In one embodiment, the load balancer uses aleast connections algorithm to route user requests to the applicationservers 100. Other examples of load balancing algorithms, such as roundrobin and observed response time, also can be used. For example, incertain embodiments, three consecutive requests from the same user couldhit three different application servers 100, and three requests fromdifferent users could hit the same application server 100. In thismanner, system 16 is multi-tenant, wherein system 16 handles storage of,and access to, different objects, data and applications across disparateusers and organizations.

As an example of storage, one tenant might be a company that employs asales force where each salesperson uses system 16 to manage their salesprocess. Thus, a user might maintain contact data, leads data, customerfollow-up data, performance data, goals and progress data, etc., allapplicable to that user's personal sales process (e.g., in tenant datastorage 22). In an example of a MTS arrangement, since all of the dataand the applications to access, view, modify, report, transmit,calculate, etc., can be maintained and accessed by a user system havingnothing more than network access, the user can manage his or her salesefforts and cycles from any of many different user systems. For example,if a salesperson is visiting a customer and the customer has Internetaccess in their lobby, the salesperson can obtain critical updates as tothat customer while waiting for the customer to arrive in the lobby.

While each user's data might be separate from other users' dataregardless of the employers of each user, some data might beorganization-wide data shared or accessible by a plurality of users orall of the users for a given organization that is a tenant. Thus, theremight be some data structures managed by system 16 that are allocated atthe tenant level while other data structures might be managed at theuser level. Because an MTS might support multiple tenants includingpossible competitors, the MTS should have security protocols that keepdata, applications, and application use separate. Also, because manytenants may opt for access to an MTS rather than maintain their ownsystem, redundancy, up-time, and backup are additional functions thatmay be implemented in the MTS. In addition to user-specific data andtenant-specific data, system 16 might also maintain system level datausable by multiple tenants or other data. Such system level data mightinclude industry reports, news, postings, and the like that are sharableamong tenants.

In certain embodiments, user systems 12 (which may be client systems)communicate with application servers 100 to request and updatesystem-level and tenant-level data from system 16 that may requiresending one or more queries to tenant data storage 22 and/or system datastorage 24. System 16 (e.g., an application server 100 in system 16)automatically generates one or more SQL statements (e.g., one or moreSQL queries) that are designed to access the desired information. Systemdata storage 24 may generate query plans to access the requested datafrom the database.

Each database can generally be viewed as a collection of objects, suchas a set of logical tables, containing data fitted into predefinedcategories. A “table” is one representation of a data object, and may beused herein to simplify the conceptual description of objects and customobjects according to embodiments of the present invention. It should beunderstood that “table” and “object” may be used interchangeably herein.Each table generally contains one or more data categories logicallyarranged as columns or fields in a viewable schema. Each row or recordof a table contains an instance of data for each category defined by thefields. For example, a CRM database may include a table that describes acustomer with fields for basic contact information such as name,address, phone number, fax number, etc. Another table might describe apurchase order, including fields for information such as customer,product, sale price, date, etc. In some multi-tenant database systems,standard entity tables might be provided for use by all tenants. For CRMdatabase applications, such standard entities might include tables forAccount, Contact, Lead, and Opportunity data, each containingpre-defined fields. It should be understood that the word “entity” mayalso be used interchangeably herein with “object” and “table”.

In some multi-tenant database systems, tenants may be allowed to createand store custom objects, or they may be allowed to customize standardentities or objects, for example by creating custom fields for standardobjects, including custom index fields. U.S. Pat. No. 7,779,039 byWeissman et al., filed Apr. 2, 2004, entitled “Custom Entities andFields in a Multi-Tenant Database System”, and which is herebyincorporated by reference in its entirety and for all purposes, teachessystems and methods for creating custom objects as well as customizingstandard objects in a multi-tenant database system. In certainembodiments, for example, all custom entity data rows are stored in asingle multi-tenant physical table, which may contain multiple logicaltables per organization. It is transparent to customers that theirmultiple “tables” are in fact stored in one large table or that theirdata may be stored in the same table as the data of other customers.

FIG. 2A shows a system diagram 200 illustrating architectural componentsof an on-demand service environment, in accordance with one embodiment.

A client machine located in the cloud 204 (or Internet) may communicatewith the on-demand service environment via one or more edge routers 208and 212. The edge routers may communicate with one or more core switches220 and 224 via firewall 216. The core switches may communicate with aload balancer 228, which may distribute server load over different pods,such as the pods 240 and 244. The pods 240 and 244, which may eachinclude one or more servers and/or other computing resources, mayperform data processing and other operations used to provide on-demandservices. Communication with the pods may be conducted via pod switches232 and 236. Components of the on-demand service environment maycommunicate with a database storage system 256 via a database firewall248 and a database switch 252.

As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, accessing an on-demand service environmentmay involve communications transmitted among a variety of differenthardware and/or software components. Further, the on-demand serviceenvironment 200 is a simplified representation of an actual on-demandservice environment. For example, while only one or two devices of eachtype are shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, some embodiments of an on-demandservice environment may include anywhere from one to many devices ofeach type. Also, the on-demand service environment need not include eachdevice shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, or may include additional devices notshown in FIGS. 2A and 2B.

Moreover, one or more of the devices in the on-demand serviceenvironment 200 may be implemented on the same physical device or ondifferent hardware. Some devices may be implemented using hardware or acombination of hardware and software. Thus, terms such as “dataprocessing apparatus,” “machine,” “server” and “device” as used hereinare not limited to a single hardware device, but rather include anyhardware and software configured to provide the described functionality.

The cloud 204 is intended to refer to a data network or plurality ofdata networks, often including the Internet. Client machines located inthe cloud 204 may communicate with the on-demand service environment toaccess services provided by the on-demand service environment. Forexample, client machines may access the on-demand service environment toretrieve, store, edit, and/or process information.

In some embodiments, the edge routers 208 and 212 route packets betweenthe cloud 204 and other components of the on-demand service environment200. The edge routers 208 and 212 may employ the Border Gateway Protocol(BGP). The BGP is the core routing protocol of the Internet. The edgerouters 208 and 212 may maintain a table of IP networks or ‘prefixes’which designate network reachability among autonomous systems on theInternet.

In one or more embodiments, the firewall 216 may protect the innercomponents of the on-demand service environment 200 from Internettraffic. The firewall 216 may block, permit, or deny access to the innercomponents of the on-demand service environment 200 based upon a set ofrules and other criteria. The firewall 216 may act as one or more of apacket filter, an application gateway, a stateful filter, a proxyserver, or any other type of firewall.

In some embodiments, the core switches 220 and 224 are high-capacityswitches that transfer packets within the on-demand service environment200. The core switches 220 and 224 may be configured as network bridgesthat quickly route data between different components within theon-demand service environment. In some embodiments, the use of two ormore core switches 220 and 224 may provide redundancy and/or reducedlatency.

In some embodiments, the pods 240 and 244 may perform the core dataprocessing and service functions provided by the on-demand serviceenvironment. Each pod may include various types of hardware and/orsoftware computing resources. An example of the pod architecture isdiscussed in greater detail with reference to FIG. 2B.

In some embodiments, communication between the pods 240 and 244 may beconducted via the pod switches 232 and 236. The pod switches 232 and 236may facilitate communication between the pods 240 and 244 and clientmachines located in the cloud 204, for example via core switches 220 and224. Also, the pod switches 232 and 236 may facilitate communicationbetween the pods 240 and 244 and the database storage 256.

In some embodiments, the load balancer 228 may distribute workloadbetween the pods 240 and 244. Balancing the on-demand service requestsbetween the pods may assist in improving the use of resources,increasing throughput, reducing response times, and/or reducingoverhead. The load balancer 228 may include multilayer switches toanalyze and forward traffic.

In some embodiments, access to the database storage 256 may be guardedby a database firewall 248. The database firewall 248 may act as acomputer application firewall operating at the database applicationlayer of a protocol stack. The database firewall 248 may protect thedatabase storage 256 from application attacks such as structure querylanguage (SQL) injection, database rootkits, and unauthorizedinformation disclosure.

In some embodiments, the database firewall 248 may include a host usingone or more forms of reverse proxy services to proxy traffic beforepassing it to a gateway router. The database firewall 248 may inspectthe contents of database traffic and block certain content or databaserequests. The database firewall 248 may work on the SQL applicationlevel atop the TCP/IP stack, managing applications' connection to thedatabase or SQL management interfaces as well as intercepting andenforcing packets traveling to or from a database network or applicationinterface.

In some embodiments, communication with the database storage system 256may be conducted via the database switch 252. The multi-tenant databasesystem 256 may include more than one hardware and/or software componentsfor handling database queries. Accordingly, the database switch 252 maydirect database queries transmitted by other components of the on-demandservice environment (e.g., the pods 240 and 244) to the correctcomponents within the database storage system 256.

In some embodiments, the database storage system 256 is an on-demanddatabase system shared by many different organizations. The on-demanddatabase system may employ a multi-tenant approach, a virtualizedapproach, or any other type of database approach. An on-demand databasesystem is discussed in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1A and 1B.

FIG. 2B shows a system diagram illustrating the architecture of the pod244, in accordance with one embodiment. The pod 244 may be used torender services to a user of the on-demand service environment 200.

In some embodiments, each pod may include a variety of servers and/orother systems. The pod 244 includes one or more content batch servers264, content search servers 268, query servers 272, file force servers276, access control system (ACS) servers 280, batch servers 284, and appservers 288. Also, the pod 244 includes database instances 290, quickfile systems (QFS) 292, and indexers 294. In one or more embodiments,some or all communication between the servers in the pod 244 may betransmitted via the switch 236.

In some embodiments, the application servers 288 may include a hardwareand/or software framework dedicated to the execution of procedures(e.g., programs, routines, scripts) for supporting the construction ofapplications provided by the on-demand service environment 200 via thepod 244. Some such procedures may include operations for providing theservices described herein, such as performing the methods/processesdescribed below with reference to FIGS. 15-17. In alternativeembodiments, two or more app servers 288 may be included and cooperateto perform such methods, or one or more other servers in FIG. 2B can beconfigured to perform the disclosed methods described below.

The content batch servers 264 may requests internal to the pod. Theserequests may be long-running and/or not tied to a particular customer.For example, the content batch servers 264 may handle requests relatedto log mining, cleanup work, and maintenance tasks.

The content search servers 268 may provide query and indexer functions.For example, the functions provided by the content search servers 268may allow users to search through content stored in the on-demandservice environment.

The Fileforce servers 276 may manage requests information stored in theFileforce storage 278. The Fileforce storage 278 may store informationsuch as documents, images, and basic large objects (BLOBs). By managingrequests for information using the Fileforce servers 276, the imagefootprint on the database may be reduced.

The query servers 272 may be used to retrieve information from one ormore file systems. For example, the query system 272 may receiverequests for information from the app servers 288 and then transmitinformation queries to the NFS 296 located outside the pod.

The pod 244 may share a database instance 290 configured as amulti-tenant environment in which different organizations share accessto the same database. Additionally, services rendered by the pod 244 mayrequire various hardware and/or software resources. In some embodiments,the ACS servers 280 may control access to data, hardware resources, orsoftware resources.

In some embodiments, the batch servers 284 may process batch jobs, whichare used to run tasks at specified times. Thus, the batch servers 284may transmit instructions to other servers, such as the app servers 288,to trigger the batch jobs.

In some embodiments, the QFS 292 may be an open source file systemavailable from Sun Microsystems® of Santa Clara, Calif. The QFS mayserve as a rapid-access file system for storing and accessinginformation available within the pod 244. The QFS 292 may support somevolume management capabilities, allowing many disks to be groupedtogether into a file system. File system metadata can be kept on aseparate set of disks, which may be useful for streaming applicationswhere long disk seeks cannot be tolerated. Thus, the QFS system maycommunicate with one or more content search servers 268 and/or indexers294 to identify, retrieve, move, and/or update data stored in thenetwork file systems 296 and/or other storage systems.

In some embodiments, one or more query servers 272 may communicate withthe NFS 296 to retrieve and/or update information stored outside of thepod 244. The NFS 296 may allow servers located in the pod 244 to accessinformation to access files over a network in a manner similar to howlocal storage is accessed.

In some embodiments, queries from the query servers 222 may betransmitted to the NFS 296 via the load balancer 220, which maydistribute resource requests over various resources available in theon-demand service environment. The NFS 296 may also communicate with theQFS 292 to update the information stored on the NFS 296 and/or toprovide information to the QFS 292 for use by servers located within thepod 244.

In some embodiments, the pod may include one or more database instances290. The database instance 290 may transmit information to the QFS 292.When information is transmitted to the QFS, it may be available for useby servers within the pod 244 without requiring an additional databasecall.

In some embodiments, database information may be transmitted to theindexer 294. Indexer 294 may provide an index of information availablein the database 290 and/or QFS 292. The index information may beprovided to file force servers 276 and/or the QFS 292.

III. Tracking Updates to a Record Stored in a Database

As multiple users might be able to change the data of a record, it canbe useful for certain users to be notified when a record is updated.Also, even if a user does not have authority to change a record, theuser still might want to know when there is an update. For example, avendor may negotiate a new price with a salesperson of company X, wherethe salesperson is a user associated with tenant X. As part of creatinga new invoice or for accounting purposes, the salesperson can change theprice saved in the database. It may be important for co-workers to knowthat the price has changed. The salesperson could send an e-mail tocertain people, but this is onerous and the salesperson might not e-mailall of the people who need to know or want to know. Accordingly,embodiments can inform others (e.g. co-workers) who want to know aboutan update to a record automatically.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a method 300 for tracking updates to a recordstored in a database system according to embodiments. In someembodiments, method 300 (and other methods described herein) may beimplemented at least partially with multi-tenant database system 16,e.g., by one or more processors configured to receive or retrieveinformation, process the information, store results, and the transmitthe results. In other embodiments, method 300 may be implemented atleast partially with a single tenant database system. In variousembodiments, steps may be omitted, combined, or split into additionalsteps for method 300, as well as for other methods described herein.

In step 310, the database system receives a request to update a firstrecord. In one embodiment, the request is received from a first user.For example, a user may be accessing a page associated with the firstrecord, and may change a displayed field and hit save. In anotherembodiment, the database system can automatically create the request.For instance, the database system can create the request in response toanother event, e.g., a request to change a field could be sentperiodically at a particular date and/or time of day, or a change toanother field or object. The database system can obtain a new valuebased on other fields of a record and/or based on parameters in thesystem.

The request for the update of a field of a record is an example of anevent associated with the first record for which a feed tracked updatemay be created. In other embodiments, the database system can identifyother events besides updates to fields of a record. For example, anevent can be a submission of approval to change a field. Such an eventcan also have an associated field (e.g., a field showing a status ofwhether a change has been submitted). Other examples of events caninclude creation of a record, deletion of a record, converting a recordfrom one type to another (e.g. converting a lead to an opportunity),closing a record (e.g. a case type record), and potentially any statechange of a record—any of which could include a field change associatedwith the state change. Any of these events update the record whether bychanging a field of the record, a state of the record, or some othercharacteristic or property of the record. In one embodiment, a list ofsupported events for creating a feed tracked update can be maintainedwithin the database system, e.g., at a server or in a database.

In step 320, the database system writes new data to the first record. Inone embodiment, the new data may include a new value that replaces olddata. For example, a field is updated with a new value. In anotherembodiment, the new data can be a value for a field that did not containdata before. In yet another embodiment, the new data could be a flag,e.g., for a status of the record, which can be stored as a field of therecord.

In some embodiments, a “field” can also include records that are childobjects of the first record. A child object itself can include furtherfields. Thus, if a field of a child object is updated with a new value,the parent record also can be considered to have a field changed. In oneexample, a field could be a list of related child objects, also called arelated list.

In step 330, a feed tracked update is generated about the update to therecord. In one embodiment, the feed tracked update is created in partsfor assembling later into a display version. For example, event entriescan be created and tracked in one table, and changed field entries canbe tracked in another table that is cross-referenced with the firsttable. More specifics of such embodiments are provided later, e.g., withrespect to FIG. 9A. In another embodiment, the feed tracked update isautomatically generated by the database system. The feed tracked updatecan convey in words that the first record has been updated and providedetails about what was updated in the record and who performed theupdate. In some embodiments, a feed tracked update is generated for onlycertain types of event and/or updates associated with the first record.

In one embodiment, a tenant (e.g. through an administrator) canconfigure the database system to create (enable) feed tracked updatesonly for certain types of records. For example, an administrator canspecify that records of type Account and Opportunity are enabled. Whenan update (or other event) is received for the enabled record type, thena feed tracked update would be generated. In another embodiment, atenant can also specify the fields of a record whose changes are to betracked, and for which feed tracked updates are created. In one aspect,a maximum number of fields can be specified for tracking, and mayinclude custom fields. In one implementation, the type of change canalso be specified, for example, that the value change of a field isrequired to be larger than a threshold (e.g. an absolute amount or apercentage change). In yet another embodiment, a tenant can specifywhich events are to cause a generation of a feed tracked update. Also,in one implementation, individual users can specify configurationsspecific to them, which can create custom feeds as described in moredetail below.

In one embodiment, changes to fields of a child object are not trackedto create feed tracked updates for the parent record. In anotherembodiment, the changes to fields of a child object can be tracked tocreate feed tracked updates for the parent record. For example, a childobject of the parent type can be specified for tracking, and certainfields of the child object can be specified for tracking. As anotherexample, if the child object is of a type specified for tracking, then atracked change for the child object is propagated to parent records ofthe child object.

In step 340, the feed tracked update is added to a feed for the firstrecord. In one embodiment, adding the feed tracked update to a feed caninclude adding events to a table (which may be specific to a record orbe for all or a group of objects), where a display version of a feedtracked update can be performed dynamically when a user requests a feedfor the first record. In another embodiment, a display version of a feedtracked update can be added when a record feed is stored and maintainedfor a record. As mentioned above, a feed may be maintained for onlycertain records. In one implementation, the feed of a record can bestored in the database associated with the feed. For example, the feedcan be stored as a field (e.g. as a child object) of the record. Such afield can store a pointer to the text to be displayed for the feedtracked update.

In some embodiments, only the current feed tracked update (or othercurrent feed item) may be kept or temporarily stored, e.g., in sometemporary memory structure. For example, a feed tracked update for onlya most recent change to any particular field is kept. In otherembodiments, many previous feed tracked updates may be kept in the feed.A time and/or date for each feed tracked update can be tracked. Herein,a feed of a record is also referred to as an entity feed, as a record isan instance of a particular entity object of the database.

In step 350, followers of the first record can be identified. A followeris a user following (subscribing to a feed of) the first record. In oneembodiment, when a user requests a feed of a particular record such anidentification need not be done. In another embodiment where a recordfeed is pushed to a user (e.g. as part of a news feed), then the usercan be identified as a follower of the first record. Accordingly, thisstep can be the identification of records and other objects beingfollowed by a particular user.

In one embodiment, the database system can store a list of the followersfor a particular record. In various implementations, the list can bestored with the first record or associated with the record using anidentifier (e.g. a pointer) to retrieve the list. For example, the listcan be stored in a field of the first record. In another embodiment, alist of the records that a user is following is used. In oneimplementation, the database system can have a routine that runs foreach user, where the routine polls the records in the list to determineif a new feed tracked update has been added to a feed of the record. Inanother implementation, the routine for the user can be running at leastpartially on a user device, which contacts the database to perform thepolling.

In step 360, the feed tracked update is added to a feed of eachfollower. In one embodiment, the feed tracked update is pushed to thefeed of a user, e.g., by a routine that determines the followers for therecord from a list associated with the record. In another embodiment,the feed tracked update is pulled to a feed, e.g., by a user device.This pulling may occur when a user requests the feed, as occurs in step370. Thus, these actions may occur in a different order. The creation ofthe feed for a pull may be a dynamic creation that identifies recordsbeing followed by the requesting user, generates the display version ofrelevant feed tracked updates from stored information (e.g. event andfield change), and adds the feed tracked updates into the feed. A feedof feed tracked updates of records and other objects that a user isfollowing is also called a news feed.

In yet another embodiment, the feed tracked update could be sent as ane-mail to the follower, instead of in a feed. In one implementation,e-mail alerts for events can enable people to be e-mailed when certainevents occur. In another implementation, e-mails can be sent when thereare posts on a user profile and posts on entities to which the usersubscribes. In one implementation, a user can turn on/off email alertsfor all or some events. In an embodiment, a user can specify what kindof feed tracked updates to receive about a record that the user isfollowing. For example, a user can choose to only receive feed trackedupdates about certain fields of a record that the user is following, andpotentially about what kind of update was performed (e.g. a new valueinput into a specified field, or the creation of a new field).

In step 370, a follower can access his/her news feed to see the feedtracked update. In one embodiment, the user has just one news feed forall of the records that the user is following. In one aspect, a user canaccess his/her own feed by selecting a particular tab or other object ona page of an interface to the database system. Once selected the feedcan be provided as a list, e.g., with an identifier (e.g. a time) orincluding some or all of the text of the feed tracked update. In anotherembodiment, the user can specify how the feed tracked updates are to bedisplayed and/or sent to the user. For example, a user can specify afont for the text, a location of where the feed can be selected anddisplayed, amount of text to be displayed, and other text or symbols tobe displayed (e.g. importance flags).

FIG. 4 is a block diagram 400 of components of a database systemperforming a method for tracking an update to a record according toembodiments. Block diagram 400 can perform embodiments of method 300, aswell as embodiments of other method described herein.

A first user 405 sends a request 1 to update record 425 in databasesystem 416. Although an update request is described, other events thatare being tracked are equally applicable. In various embodiments, therequest 1 can be sent via a user interface (e.g. 30 of FIG. 1B) or anapplication program interface (e.g. API 32). An I/O port 420 canaccommodate the signals of request 1 via any input interface, and sendthe signals to one or more processors 417. The processor 417 can analyzethe request and determine actions to be performed. Herein, any referenceto a processor 417 can refer to a specific processor or any set ofprocessors in database system 416, which can be collectively referred toas processor 417.

Processor 417 can determine an identifier for record 425, and sendcommands 2 with the new data to record database 412 to update record425. In one embodiment, record database 412 is where tenant data 112 isstored. The request 1 and new data commands 2 can be encapsulated in asingle write transaction sent to record database 412. In one embodiment,multiple changes to records in the database can be made in a singlewrite transaction.

Processor 417 can also analyze request 1 to determine whether a feedtracked update is to be created, which at this point may includedetermining whether the event (e.g. a change to a particular field) isto be tracked. This determination can be based on an interaction (i.e.an exchange of data) with record database 412 and/or other databases, orbased on information stored locally (e.g. in cache or RAM) at processor417. In one embodiment, a list of record types that are being trackedcan be stored. The list may be different for each tenant, e.g. as eachtenant may configure the database system to their own specifications.Thus, if the record 425 is of a type not being tracked, then thedetermination of whether to create a feed tracked update can stop there.

The same list or a second list (which can be stored in a same locationor a different location) can also include the fields and/or events thatare tracked for the record types in the first list. This list can besearched to determine if the event is being tracked. A list may alsocontain information having the granularity of listing specific recordsthat are to be tracked (e.g. if a tenant can specify the particularrecords to be tracked, as opposed to just type).

As an example, processor 417 may obtain an identifier associated withrecord 425 (e.g. obtained from request 1 or database 412), potentiallyalong with a tenant identifier, and cross-reference the identifier witha list of records for which feed tracked updates are to be created.Specifically, the record identifier can be used to determine the recordtype and a list of tracked types can be searched for a match. Thespecific record may also be checked if such individual record trackingwas enabled. The name of the field to be changed can also be used tosearch a list of tracking-enabled fields. Other criteria besides fieldand events can be used to determine whether a feed tracked update iscreated, e.g., type of change in the field. If a feed tracked update isto be generated, processor 417 can then generate the feed trackedupdate.

In some embodiments, a feed tracked update is created dynamically when afeed (e.g. the entity feed of record 425) is requested. Thus, in oneimplementation, a feed tracked update can be created when a userrequests the entity feed for record 425. In this embodiment, the feedtracked update may be created (e.g. assembled), including re-created,each time the entity feed is to be displayed to any user. In oneimplementation, one or more hifeed tracked update tables can keep trackof previous events so that the feed tracked update can be re-created.

In another embodiment, a feed tracked update can be created at the timethe event occurs, and the feed tracked update can be added to a list offeed items. The list of feed items may be specific to record 425, or maybe an aggregate of feed items including feed items for many records.Such an aggregate list can include a record identifier so that the feeditems for the entity feed of record 425 can be easily retrieved. Forexample, after the feed tracked update has been generated, processor 417can add the new feed tracked update 3 to a feed of record 425. Asmentioned above, in one embodiment, the feed can be stored in a field(e.g. as a child object) of record 425. In another embodiment, the feedcan be stored in another location or in another database, but with alink (e.g. a connecting identifier) to record 425. The feed can beorganized in various ways, e.g., as a linked list, an array, or otherdata structure.

A second user 430 can access the new feed tracked update 3 in variousways. In one embodiment, second user 430 can send a request 4 for therecord feed. For example, second user 430 can access a home page (detailpage) of the record 425 (e.g. with a query or by browsing), and the feedcan be obtained through a tab, button, or other activation object on thepage. The feed can be displayed on the screen or downloaded.

In another embodiment, processor 417 can add the new feed tracked updatein a step 5 to a feed (e.g. a news feed) of a user that is followingrecord 425. In one implementation, processor 417 can determine each ofthe followers of record 425 by accessing a list of the users that havebeen registered as followers. This determination can be done for eachnew event (e.g. update 1). In another implementation, processor 417 canpoll (e.g. with a query) the records that second user 430 is followingto determine when new feed tracked updates (or other feed items) areavailable. Processor 417 can use a follower profile 435 of second user430, which can contain a list of the records that the second user 430 isfollowing. Such a list can be contained in other parts of the databaseas well. Second user 430 can then send a request 6 to his/her profile435 to obtain a feed, which contains the new feed tracked update. Theuser's profile 435 can be stored in a profile database 414, which can bethe same or different than database 412.

In some embodiments, a user can define a news feed to include new feedtracked updates from various records, which may be limited to a maximumnumber. In one embodiment, each user has one news feed. In anotherembodiment, the follower profile 435 can include the specifications ofeach of the records to be followed (with the criteria for what feedtracked updates are to be provided and how they are displayed), as wellas the feed.

Some embodiments can provide various types of record (entity) feeds.Entity Feeds can exist for records like Account, Opportunity, Case, andContact. An entity feed can tell a user about the actions that peoplehave taken on that particular record or on one its related records. Theentity feed can include who made the action, which field was changed,and the old and new values. In one embodiment, entity feeds can exist onall supported records as a list that is linked to the specific record.For example, a feed could be stored in a field that allows lists (e.g.linked lists) or as a child object.

IV. Tracking Actions of a User

In addition to knowing about events associated with a particular record,it can be helpful for a user to know what a particular user is doing. Inparticular, it might be nice to know what the user is doing without theuser having to generate the feed tracked update (e.g. a user submittinga synopsis of what the user has done). Accordingly, embodiments canautomatically track actions of a user that trigger events, and feedtracked updates can be generated for certain events.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart of a method 500 for tracking actions of a user ofa database system according to embodiments. Method 500 may be performedin addition to method 300. The methods of implementing method 300,including order of steps, can also be applied to method 500 and othermethods described herein. Thus, a feed can be composed of changes to arecord and actions of users.

In step 510, a database system (e.g. 16) identifies an action of a firstuser. In one embodiment, the action triggers an event, and the event isidentified. For example, the action of a user requesting an update to arecord can be identified, where the event is receiving a request or isthe resulting update of a record. The action may thus be defined by theresulting event. In another embodiment, only certain types of actions(events) are identified. Which actions are identified can be set as adefault or can be configurable by a tenant, or even configurable at auser level. In this way, processing effort can be reduced since onlysome actions are identified.

In step 520, it is determined whether the event qualifies for a feedtracked update. In one embodiment, a predefined list of events (e.g. asmentioned herein) can be created so that only certain actions areidentified. In one embodiment, an administrator (or other user) of atenant can specify the type of actions (events) for which a feed trackedupdate is to be generated. This step may also be performed for method300.

In step 530, a feed tracked update is generated about the action. In anexample where the action is an update of a record, the feed trackedupdate can be similar or the same as the feed tracked update created forthe record. The description can be altered though to focus on the useras opposed to the record. For example, “John D. has closed a newopportunity for account XYZ” as opposed to “an opportunity has beenclosed for account XYZ.”

In step 540, the feed tracked update is added to a profile feed of thefirst user. In one embodiment, a feed for a particular user can beaccessed on a page of the user's profile, in a similar manner as arecord feed can be accessed on a detail page of the record. In anotherembodiment, the first user may not have a profile feed and the feedtracked update may just be stored temporarily before proceeding. Aprofile feed of a user can be stored associated with the user's profile.This profile feed can be added to a news feed of another user.

In step 550, followers of the first user are identified. In oneembodiment, a user can specify which type of actions other users canfollow. Similarly, in one implementation, a follower can select whatactions by a user the follower wants to follow. In an embodiment wheredifferent followers follow different types of actions, which users arefollowers of that user and the particular action can be identified,e.g., using various lists that track what actions and criteria are beingfollowed by a particular user. In various embodiments, the followers ofthe first user can be identified in a similar manner as followers of arecord, as described above for step 350.

In step 560, the feed tracked update is added to a news feed of eachfollower of the first user. The feed tracked update can be added in asimilar manner as the feed items for a record feed. The news feed cancontain feed tracked updates both about users and records. In anotherembodiment, a user can specify what kind of feed tracked updates toreceive about a user that the user is following. For example, a usercould specify feed tracked updates with particular keywords, of certaintypes of records, of records owned or created by certain users,particular fields, and other criteria as mentioned herein.

In step 570, a follower accesses the news feed and sees the feed trackedupdate. In one embodiment, the user has just one news feed for all ofthe records that the user is following.

In another embodiment, a user can access his/her own feed (i.e. feedabout his/her own actions) by selecting a particular tab or other objecton a page of an interface to the database system. Thus, a feed caninclude feed tracked updates about what other users are doing in thedatabase system. When a user becomes aware of a relevant action ofanother user, the user can contact the co-worker, thereby fosteringteamwork.

V. Generation of a Feed Tracked Update

As described above, some embodiments can generate text describing events(e.g. updates) that have occurred for a record and actions by a userthat trigger an event. A database system can be configured to generatethe feed tracked updates for various events in various ways.

A. Which Events to Generate a Feed Tracked Update

In a database system, there are various events that can be detected.However, the operator of the database system and/or a tenant may notwant to detect every possible event as this could be costly with regardsto performance. Accordingly, the operator and/or the tenant canconfigure the database system to only detect certain events. Forexample, an update of a record may be an event that is to be detected.

Out of the events that are detected, a tenant (including a specific userof the tenant) may not want a feed tracked update about each detectedevent. For example, all updates to a record may be identified at a firstlevel. Then, based on specifications of an administrator and/or aspecific user of a tenant, another level of inquiry can be made as towhether a feed tracked update is to be generated about the detectedevent. For example, the events that qualify for a feed tracked updatecan be restricted to changes for only certain fields of the record,which can differ depending on which user is receiving the feed. In oneembodiment, a database system can track whether an event qualifies for afeed tracked update for any user, and once the feed tracked update isgenerated, it can be determined who is to receive the feed trackedupdate.

Supported events (events for which a feed tracked update is generated)can include actions for standard fields, custom fields, and standardrelated lists. Regarding standard fields, for the entity feed and theprofile feed, a standard field update can trigger a feed tracked updateto be published to that feed. In one embodiment, which standard fieldcan create a feed tracked update can be set by an administrator to bethe same for every user. In another embodiment, a user can set whichstandard fields create a feed tracked update for that user's news feed.Custom fields can be treated the same or differently than standardfields.

The generation of a feed item can also depend on a relationship of anobject to other objects (e.g. parent-child relationships). For example,if a child object is updated, a feed tracked update may be written to afeed of a parent of the child object. The level of relationship can beconfigured, e.g., only 1 level of separation (i.e. nograndparent-grandchild relationship). Also, in one embodiment, a feedtracked update is generated only for objects above the objects beingupdated, i.e., a feed tracked update is not written for a child when theparent is updated.

In some embodiments, for related lists of a record, a feed trackedupdate is written to its parent record (1 level only) when the relatedlist item is added, and not when the list item is changed or deleted.For example: user A added a new opportunity XYZ for account ABC. In thismanner, entity feeds can be controlled so as not to be cluttered withfeed tracked updates about changes to their related items. Any changesto the related list item can be tracked on their own entity feed, ifthat related list item has a feed on it. In this embodiment, if a userwants to see a feed of the related list item then the user can subscribeto it. Such a subscription might be when a user cares about a specificopportunity related to a specific account. A user can also browse tothat object's entity feed. Other embodiments can create a feed trackedupdate when a related entity is changed or deleted.

In one embodiment, an administrator (of the system or of a specifictenant) can define which events of which related objects are to havefeed tracked updates written about them in a parent record. In anotherembodiment, a user can define which related object events to show. Inone implementation, there are two types of related lists of relatedobjects: first class lookup and second class lookup. Each of the recordsin the related lists can have a different rule for whether a feedtracked update is generated for a parent record. Each of these relatedlists can be composed as custom related lists. In various embodiments, acustom related list can be composed of custom objects, the lists cancontain a variety of records or items (e.g. not restricted to aparticular type of record or item), and can be displayed in a customizedmanner.

In one embodiment, a first class lookup contains records of a childrecord that can exist by itself. For example, the contacts on an accountexist as a separate record and also as a child record of the account. Inanother embodiment, a record in a first class lookup can have its ownfeed, which can be displayed on its detail page.

In one embodiment, a second class lookup can have line items existingonly in the context of their parent record (e.g. activities on anopportunity, contact roles on opportunity/contact). In oneimplementation, the line items are not objects themselves, and thusthere is no detail page, and no place to put a feed. In anotherimplementation, a change in a second class lookup can be reported on thefeed of the parent.

Some embodiments can also create feed tracked updates for dependentfield changes. A dependent field change is a field that changes valuewhen another field changes, and thus the field has a value that isdependent on the value of the other field. For example, a dependentfield might be a sum (or other formula) that totals values in otherfields, and thus the dependent field would change when one of the fieldsbeing summed changes. Accordingly, in one embodiment, a change in onefield could create feed tracked updates for multiple fields. In otherembodiments, feed tracked updates are not created for dependent fields.

B. How the Feed Tracked Update is Generated

After it is determined that a feed tracked update is going to begenerated, some embodiments can also determine how the feed trackedupdate is generated. In one embodiment, different methods can be usedfor different events, e.g., in a similar fashion as for theconfigurability of which events feed tracked updates are generated. Afeed tracked update can also include a description of multiple events(e.g. john changed the account status and amount).

In one embodiment, the feed tracked update is a grammatical sentence,thereby being easily understandable by a person. In another embodiment,the feed tracked update provides detailed information about the update.In various examples, an old value and new value for a field may beincluded in the feed tracked update, an action for the update may beprovided (e.g. submitted for approval), and the names of particularusers that are responsible for replying or acting on the feed trackedupdate may be also provided. The feed tracked update can also have alevel of importance based on settings chosen by the administrator, aparticular user requesting an update, or by a following user who is toreceive the feed tracked update, which fields is updated, a percentageof the change in a field, the type of event, or any combination of thesefactors.

The system may have a set of heuristics for creating a feed trackedupdate from the event (e.g. a request to update). For example, thesubject may be the user, the record, or a field being added or changed.The verb can be based on the action requested by the user, which can beselected from a list of verbs (which may be provided as defaults orinput by an administrator of a tenant). In one embodiment, feed trackedupdates can be generic containers with formatting restrictions,

As an example of a creation of a new record, “Mark Abramowitz created anew Opportunity IBM—20,000 laptops with Amount as $3.5M and SamPalmisano as Decision Maker.” This event can be posted to the profilefeed for Mark Abramowitz and the entity feed for record of Opportunityfor IBM—20,000 laptops. The pattern can be given by (AgentFullName)created a new (ObjectName)(RecordName) with [(FieldName) as(FieldValue)[,/and]]*[[added/changed/removed](RelatedListRecordName)[as/to/as](RelatedListRecordValue)[,/and]]*. Similar patterns can beformed for a changed field (standard or custom) and an added childrecord to a related list.

VI. Tracking Commentary from or about a User

Some embodiments can also have a user submit text, instead of thedatabase system generating a feed tracked update. As the text issubmitted by users, the text (also referred generally as messages) canbe about any topic. Thus, more information than just actions of a userand events of a record can be conveyed. In one embodiment, the messagescan be used to ask a question about a particular record, and usersfollowing the record can provide responses (comments).

FIG. 6 is a flowchart of a method 600 for creating a news feed thatincludes messages associated with a first user according to embodiments.In one embodiment, method 600 can be combined with methods 300 and 500.In one aspect, a message can be associated with the first user when thefirst user creates the message (e.g. a post or comment about a record oranother user). In another aspect, a message can be associated with thefirst user when the message is about the first user (e.g. posted byanother user on the first user's profile feed).

In step 610, database system receives a message (e.g. a post or status)associated with a first user. The message (e.g. a post or status update)can contain text submitted by another user or by the first user. In oneembodiment, a post is for a section of the first user's profile whereany user can add a post, and where multiple posts can exist. Thus, apost can appear on the first user's profile and can be viewed when thefirst user's profile is visited. For a message about a record, the postcan appear on a detail page of a record. Note the message can appear inother feeds as well. In another embodiment, a status update about thefirst user can only be added by the first user. In one implementation, auser can only have one status message.

In step 620, the message is added to a profile of the first user. In oneimplementation, the message can be added to a profile feed of the firstuser, which is associated (e.g. as a related list) with the first user'sprofile. In one embodiment, the posts are listed indefinitely. Inanother embodiment, only the most recent posts (e.g. last 50) are keptin the profile feed. Such embodiments can also be employed with feedtracked updates. In yet another embodiment, the message can be added toa profile of the user adding the message.

In step 630, database system identifies followers of the first user. Inone embodiment, the database system can identify the followers asdescribed above for method 500. In various embodiments, a follower canselect to follow a feed about the actions of the first user, messagesabout the first user, or both (potentially in a same feed).

In step 640, the message is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone embodiment, the message is only added to a news feed of a particularfollower if the message matches some criteria, e.g., the messageincludes a particular keyword or other criteria. In another embodiment,a message can be deleted by the user who created the message. In oneimplementation, once deleted by the author, the message is deleted fromall feeds to which the message had been added.

In step 650, the follower accesses a news feed and sees the message. Forexample, the follower can access a news feed on the user's own profilepage. As another example, the follower can have a news feed sent tohis/her own desktop without having to first go to a home page.

In step 660, database system receives a comment about the message. Thedatabase system can add the comment to a feed of the same first user,much as the original message was added. In one embodiment, the commentcan also be added to a feed of the user adding the comment. In oneimplementation, users can also reply to the comment. In anotherembodiment, users can add comments to a feed tracked update, and furthercomments can be associated with the feed tracked update. In yet anotherembodiment, making a comment or message is not an action to which a feedtracked update is created. Thus, the message may be the only feed itemcreated from such an action.

In one implementation, if a feed tracked update (or post) is deleted,its corresponding comments are deleted as well. In another embodiment,new comments on a feed tracked update (or post) do not update the feedtracked update timestamp. Also, the feed tracked update or post cancontinue to be shown in a feed (profile feed, record feed, or news feed)if it has had a comment within a specified timeframe (e.g. within thelast week). Otherwise, the feed tracked update (post) can be removed inan embodiment.

In some embodiments, all or most feed tracked updates can be commentedon. In other embodiments, feed tracked updates for certain records (e.g.cases or ideas) are not commentable. In various embodiments, commentscan be made for any one or more records of opportunities, accounts,contacts, leads, and custom objects.

In step 670, the comment is added to a news feed of each follower. Inone embodiment, a user can make the comment within the user's news feed.Such a comment can propagate to the appropriate profile feed or recordfeed, and then to the news feeds of the following users. Thus, feeds caninclude what people are saying, as well as what they are doing. In oneaspect, feeds are a way to stay up-to-date (e.g. on users,opportunities, etc.) as well as an opportunity to reach out to your coworkers/partners and engage them around common goals.

In some embodiments, users can rate feed tracked updates or messages(including comments). A user can choose to prioritize a display of afeed so that higher rated feed items show up higher on a display. Forexample, in an embodiment where comments are answers to a specificquestion, users can rate the different status posts so that a bestanswer can be identified. As another example, users are able to quicklyidentify feed items that are most important as those feed items can bedisplayed at a top of a list. The order of the feed items can be basedon an importance level (which can be determined by the database systemusing various factors, some of which are mentioned herein) and based ona rating from users. In one embodiment, the rating is on a scale thatincludes at least 3 values. In another embodiment, the rating is basedon a binary scale.

Besides a profile for a user, a group can also be created. In variousembodiments, the group can be created based on certain criteria that arecommon to the users, can be created by inviting users, or can be createdby receiving requests to join from a user. In one embodiment, a groupfeed can be created, with messages being added to the group feed whensomeone adds a message to the group as a whole. For example, a grouppage may have a section for posts. In another embodiment, a message canbe added to a group feed when a message is added about any one of themembers. In yet another embodiment, a group feed can include feedtracked updates about actions of the group as a whole (e.g. when anadministrator changes data in a group profile or a record owned by thegroup), or about actions of an individual member.

FIG. 7 shows an example of a group feed on a group page according toembodiments. As shown, a feed item 710 shows that a user has posted adocument to the group object. The text “Bill Bauer has posted thedocument Competitive Insights” can be generated by the database systemin a similar manner as feed tracked updates about a record beingchanged. A feed item 720 shows a post to the group, along with comments730.

FIG. 8 shows an example of a record feed containing a feed trackedupdate, post, and comments according to embodiments. Feed item 810 showsa feed tracked update based on the event of submitting a discount forapproval. Other feed items show posts that are made to the record andcomments that are made on the posts.

VII. Infrastructure for a Feed

A. Tables Used to Create a Feed

FIG. 9A shows a plurality of tables that may be used in tracking eventsand creating feeds according to embodiments. The tables of FIG. 9A mayhave entries added, or potentially removed, as part of tracking eventsin the database from which feed items are creates or that correspond tofeed items. In one embodiment, each tenant has its own set of tablesthat are created based on criteria provided by the tenant.

An event hifeed tracked update table 910 can provide a hifeed trackedupdate of events from which feed items are created. In one aspect, theevents are for objects that are being tracked. Thus, table 910 can storechange hifeed tracked updates for feeds, and the changes can bepersisted. In various embodiments, event hifeed tracked update table 910can have columns of event ID 911, object ID 912 (also called parent ID),and created by ID 913. The event ID 911 can uniquely identify aparticular event and can start at 1 (or other number or value).

Each new event can be added chronologically with a new event ID, whichmay be incremented in order. An object ID 912 can be used to track whichrecord or user's profile is being changed. For example, the object IDcan correspond to the record whose field is being changed or the userwhose feed is receiving a post. The created by ID 913 can track the userwho is performing the action that results in the event, e.g., the userthat is changing the field or that is posting a message to the profileof another user.

In some other embodiments, event hifeed tracked update table 910 canhave one or more of the following variables with certain attributes:ORGANIZATION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKEDUPDATE_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), PARENT_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BYbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being a variable of type DATE,DIVISION being a NUMBER, KEY_PREFIX being CHAR(3 BYTE), and DELETEDbeing CHAR(1 BYTE). The parent ID can provide an ID of a parent objectin case the change is promulgated to the parent. The key prefix canprovide a key that is unique to a group of records, e.g. custom records(objects). The deleted variable can indicate that the feed items for theevent are deleted, and thus the feed items are not generated. In oneembodiment, the variables for each event entry or any entry in any ofthe tables may not be nullable. In another embodiment, all entries inthe event hifeed tracked update table 910 are used to create feed itemsfor only one object, as specified by the object ID 912. For example, onefeed tracked update cannot communicate updates on two records, such asupdates of an account field and an opportunity field.

In one embodiment, a name of an event can also be stored in table 910.In one implementation, a tenant can specify events that they wanttracked. In an embodiment, event hifeed tracked update table 910 caninclude the name of the field that changed (e.g. old and new values). Inanother embodiment, the name of the field, and the values, are stored ina separate table. Other information about an event (e.g. text ofcomment, feed tracked update, post or status update) can be stored inevent hifeed tracked update table 910, or in other tables, as is nowdescribed.

A field change table 920 can provide a hifeed tracked update of thechanges to the fields. The columns of table 920 can include an event ID921 (which correlates to the event ID 911), an old value 922 for thefield, and the new value 923 for the field. In one embodiment, if anevent changes more than one field value, then there can be an entry foreach field changed. As shown, event ID 921 has two entries for eventE37.

In some other embodiments, field change table 920 can have one or moreof the following variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_IDbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKED UPDATE_FIELDS_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE) and identifying each entry, FEEDS_ENTITY_HIFEED TRACKEDUPDATE_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), FIELD_KEY being VARCHAR2(120 BYTE),DATA_TYPE being CHAR(1 BYTE), OLDVAL_STRING VARCHAR2 being (765 BYTE),NEWVAL_STRING being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE), OLDVAL_FIRST_NAME beingVARCHAR2(765 BYTE), NEWVAL_FIRST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE),OLDVAL_LAST_NAME being VARCHAR2(765 BYTE), NEWVAL_LAST_NAME beingVARCHAR2(765 BYTE), OLDVAL_NUMBER being NUMBER, NEWVAL_NUMBER beingNUMBER, OLDVAL_DATE being DATE, NEWVAL_DATE being DATE, and DELETEDbeing CHAR(1 BYTE). In one embodiment, one or more of the variables foreach entry in any of the tables may be nullable.

In one embodiment, the data type variable (and/or other variables) is anon-api-insertable field. In another embodiment, variable values can bederived from the record whose field is being changed. Certain values canbe transferred into typed columns old/new value string, old/new valuenumber or old/new value date depending upon the derived values. Inanother embodiment, there can exist a data type for capturingadd/deletes for child objects. The child ID can be tracked in theforeign-key column of the record. In yet another embodiment, if thefield name is pointing to a field in the parent entity, a field levelsecurity (FLS) can be used when a user attempts to a view a relevantfeed item. Herein, security levels for objects and fields are alsocalled access checks and determinations of authorization. In one aspect,the access can be for create, read, write, update, or delete of objects.

In one embodiment, the field name (or key) can be either a field name ofthe entity or one of the values in a separate list. For example, changesthat do not involve the update of an existing field (e.g. a close oropen) can have a field name specified in an enumerated list. Thisenumerated list can store “special” field name sentinel values fornon-update actions that a tenant wants to track. In one aspect, the APIjust surfaces these values and the caller has to check the enumeratedvalues to see if it is a special field name.

A comment table 930 can provide a hifeed tracked update of the commentsmade regarding an event, e.g., a comment on a post or a change of afield value. The columns of table 930 can include an event ID 921 (whichcorrelates to the event ID 911), the comment column 932 that stores thetext of the comment, and the time/date 933 of the comment. In oneembodiment, there can be multiple comments for each event. As shown,event ID 921 has two entries for event E37.

In some other embodiments, comment table 930 can have one or more of thefollowing variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), FEEDS_COMMENTS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE) and uniquelyidentifying each comment, PARENT_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BYbeing CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being DATE, COMMENTS beingVARCHAR2(420 BYTE), and DELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE).

A user subscription table 940 can provide a list of the objects beingfollowed (subscribed to) by a user. In one embodiment, each entry has auser ID 941 of the user doing the following and one object ID 942corresponding to the object being followed. In one implementation, theobject being followed can be a record or a user. As shown, the user withID U819 is following object IDs O615 and O489. If user U819 is followingother objects, then additional entries may exist for user U819. Also asshown, user U719 is also following object O615. The user subscriptiontable 940 can be updated when a user adds or deletes an object that isbeing followed.

In some other embodiments, comment table 940 can be composed of twotables (one for records being followed and one for users beingfollowed). One table can have one or more of the following variableswith certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE),ENTITY_SUBSCRIPTION_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), PARENT_ID being CHAR(15BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_DATE being DATE, andDELETED being CHAR(1 BYTE). Another table can have one or more of thefollowing variables with certain attributes: ORGANIZATION_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), USER_SUBSCRIPTIONS_ID being CHAR(15 BYTE), USER_ID beingCHAR(15 BYTE), CREATED_BY being CHAR(15 BYTE), and CREATED_DATE beingDATE.

In one embodiment, regarding a profile feed and a news feed, these areread-only views on the event hifeed tracked update table 910 specializedfor these feed types. Conceptually the news feed can be a semi joinbetween the entity subscriptions table 940 and the event hifeed trackedupdate table 910 on the object IDs 912 and 942 for the user. In oneaspect, these entities can have polymorphic parents and can be subjectto a number of restrictions detailed herein, e.g., to limit the cost ofsharing checks.

In one embodiment, entity feeds are modeled in the API as a feedassociate entity (e.g. AccountFeed, CaseFeed etc). A feed associateentity includes information composed of events (e.g. event IDs) for onlyone particular record type. Such a list can limit the query (and sharingchecks) to a specific record type. In one aspect, this structuring ofthe entity feeds can make the query run faster. For example, a requestfor a feed of a particular account can include the record type ofaccount. In one implementation, an account feed table can then besearched, where the table has account record IDs and corresponding eventIDs or pointers to particular event entries in event hifeed trackedupdate table 910. Since the account feed table only contains some of therecords (not all), the query can run faster.

In one embodiment, there may be objects with no events listed in theevent hifeed tracked update table 910, even though the record is beingtracked. In this case, the database service can return a resultindicating that no feed items exist.

In another embodiment, tables can also exist for audit tracking, e.g.,to examine that operations of the system (e.g. access checks) areperforming accurately. In one embodiment, audit change-hifeed trackedupdate tables can be persisted (e.g. in bulk) synchronously in the sametransaction as feed events are added to event hifeed tracked updatetable 910. In another embodiment, entries to the two sets of table canbe persisted in asynchronous manner (e.g. by forking a bulk update intoa separate java thread). In one aspect, some updates to any of thetables can get lost if the instance of the table goes down while theupdate has not yet finished. This asynchronous manner can limit animpact performance on save operations. In some embodiments, a field“persistence type” (tri state: AUDIT, FEEDS or BOTH) can be added tocapture user preferences, as opposed to being hardcoded.

B. Feed Item

A feed item can represent an individual field change of a record,creation and deletion of a record, or other events being tracked for arecord or a user. In one embodiment, all of the feed items in a singletransaction (event) can be grouped together and have the same event ID.A single transaction relates to the operations that can be performed ina single communication with the database. In another embodiment where afeed is an object of the database, a feed item can be a child of aprofile feed, news feed, or entity feed. If a feed item is added tomultiple feeds, the feed item can be replicated as a child of each feedto which the feed item is added.

In one implementation, a feed item is visible only when its parent feedis visible, which can be the same as needing read access on the feed'sparent (which can be by the type of record or by a specific record). Thefeed item's field may be only visible when allowed under field-levelsecurity (FLS). Unfortunately, this can mean that the parent feed may bevisible, but the child may not be because of FLS. Such access rules aredescribed in more detail below. In one embodiment, a feed item can beread-only. In this embodiment, after being created, the feed item cannotbe changed.

In multi-currency organizations, a feed item can have an extra currencycode field. This field can give the currency code for the currency valuein this field. In one aspect, the value is undefined when the data typeis anything other than currency.

C. Feed Comment

In some embodiments, a comment exists as an item that depends from feedtracked updates, posts, status updates, and other items that areindependent of each other. Thus, a feed comment object can exist as achild object of a feed item object. For example, comment table 930 canbe considered a child table of event hifeed tracked update table 910. Inone embodiment, a feed comment can be a child of a profile feed, newsfeed, or entity feed that is separate from other feed items.

In various embodiments, a feed comment can have various permissions forthe following actions. For read permission, a feed comment can bevisible if the parent feed is visible. For create permission, if a userhas access to the feed (which can be tracked by the ID of the parentfeed), the user can add a comment. For delete, only a user with modifyall data permission or a user who added the comment can delete thecomment. Also delete permission can require access on the parent feed.An update of a comment can be restricted, and thus not be allowed.

In one embodiment, regarding a query restriction, a feed comment cannotbe queried directly, but can be queried only via the parent feed. Anexample is “select id, parentid, (select . . . from feedcomment) fromentityfeed”. In another embodiment, a feed comment can be directlyqueries, e.g., by querying comment table 930. A query could include thetext of a comment or any other column of the table.

In another embodiment, regarding soft delete behavior, a feed commenttable does not have a soft delete column. A soft delete allows anundelete action. In one implementation, a record can have a soft delete.Thus, when the record is deleted, the feed (and its children) can besoft deleted. Therefore, in one aspect, a feed comment cannot beretrieved via the “query” verb (which would retrieve only the comment),but can be retrieved via “queryAll” verb though. An example isqueryAll(“select id, (select id, commentbody from feedcomments) fromaccountfeed where parentid=‘001x000xxx3MkADAA0’”); // where‘001x000xxx3MkADAA0’ has been soft deleted. When a hard delete (aphysical delete) happens, the comment can be hard deleted from thedatabase.

In one embodiment, regarding an implicit delete, feeds with comments arenot deleted by a reaper (a routine that performs deletion). In anotherembodiment, a user cannot delete a feed. In yet another embodiment, uponlead convert (e.g. to an opportunity or contact), the feed items of thelead can be hard deleted. This embodiment can be configured to performsuch a deletion for any change in record type. In variousimplementations, only the comments are hard deleted upon a lead convert,other convert, or when the object is deleted (as mentioned above).

In one embodiment, viewing a feed pulls up the most recent messages orfeed tracked updates (e.g. 25) and searches the most recent (e.g. 4)comments for each feed item. The comments can be identified via thecomment table 930. In one implementation, a user can request to see morecomments, e.g., by selecting a see more link.

In some embodiments, user feeds and/or entity feeds have a last commentdate field. In various embodiments, the last comment date field isstored as a field of a record or a user profile. For feeds with nocomments, this can be the same as the created date. Whenever a newcomment is created, the associated feed's last comment date can beupdated with the created date of the comment. The last comment date isunchanged if a feed comment is deleted. A use case is to allow people toorder their queries to see the feeds which have been most recentlycommented on.

D. Creating Custom Feeds by Customizing the Event Hifeed Tracked UpdateTable

In some embodiments, a tenant (e.g. through an administrator) or aspecific user of a tenant can specify the types of events for which feeditems are created. A user can add more events or remove events from alist of events that get added to the event hifeed tracked update table910. In one embodiment, a trigger can be added as a piece of code, rule,or item on a list for adding a custom event to the event hifeed trackedupdate table 910. These custom events can provide customers the abilityto create their own custom feeds and custom feed items to augment orreplace implicitly generated feeds via event hifeed tracked update table910. Implicitly generated feed data can be created when feed-tracking isenabled for certain entities/field-names. In one embodiment, in order tooverride implicit feeds, feed tracking can be turned off and thentriggers can be defined by the user to add events to the event hifeedtracked update table 910. In other embodiments, users are not allowed tooverride the default list of events that are added to table 910, andthus cannot define their own triggers for having events tracked.

For example, upon lead convert or case close, a default action to betaken by the system may be to add multiple events to event hifeedtracked update table 910. If a customer (e.g. a tenant or a specificuser) does not want each of these events to show up as feed items, thecustomer can turn off tracking for the entities and generate customfeeds by defining customized triggers (e.g. by using an API) upon theevents. As another example, although data is not changed, a customer maystill want to track an action on a record (e.g. status changes if notalready being tracked, views by certain people, retrieval of data,etc.).

In one embodiment, if a user does not want a feed item to be generatedupon every change on a given field, but only if the change exceeds acertain threshold or range, then such custom feeds can be conditionallygenerated with the customized triggers. In one implementation, thedefault tracking for the record or user may be turned off for thiscustomization so that the events are only conditionally tracked. Inanother implementation, a trigger can be defined that deletes eventsthat are not desired, so that default tracking can still be turned onfor a particular object type. Such conditional tracking can be used forother events as well.

In some embodiments, defining triggers to track certain events can bedone as follows. A user can define an object type to track. This objecttype can be added to a list of objects that can be tracked for aparticular tenant. The tenant can remove object types from this list aswell. Custom objects and standard objects can be on the list, which may,for example, be stored in cache or RAM of a server or in the database.Generally only one such list exists for a tenant, and users do not haveindividual lists for themselves, although in some embodiments, they mayparticularly when the number of users in a tenant is small.

In one embodiment, a tenant can select which records of an object typeare to be tracked. In another embodiment, once an object type is addedto the tracking list of object types, then all records of that type aretracked. The tenant can then specify the particulars of how the trackingis to be performed. For example, the tenant can specify triggers asdescribed above, fields to be tracked, or any of the customizationsmentioned herein.

In some embodiments, when a feed is defined as an object in the database(e.g. as a child object of entity records that can be tracked), aparticular instance of the feed object (e.g. for a particular record)can be create-able and delete-able. In one embodiment, if a user hasaccess to a record then the user can customize the feed for the record.In one embodiment, a record may be locked to prevent customization ofits feed.

One method of creating a custom feed for users of a database systemaccording to embodiments is now described. Any of the following stepscan be performed wholly or partially with the database system, and inparticular by one or more processor of the database system.

In step A, one or more criteria specifying which events are to betracked for possible inclusion into a feed to be displayed are receivedfrom a tenant. In step B, data indicative of an event is received. Instep C, the event is analyzed to determine if the criteria aresatisfied. In step D, if the criteria are satisfied, at least a portionof the data is added to a table (e.g. one or more of the tables in FIG.9A) that tracks events for inclusion into at least one feed for a userof the tenant. The feed in which feed items of an event may ultimatelybe displayed can be a news feed, record feed, or a profile feed.

E. Creating Custom Feeds with Filtering

After feed items have been generated, they can be filtered so that onlycertain feed items are displayed, which may be tailored to a specifictenant and/or user. In one embodiment, a user can specify changes to afield that meet certain criteria for the feed item to show up in a feeddisplayed to the user, e.g., a news feed or even an entity feeddisplayed directly to the user. In one implementation, the criteria canbe combined with other factors (e.g. number of feed items in the feed)to determine which feed items to display. For instance, if a smallnumber of feed items exist (e.g. below a threshold), then all of thefeed items may be displayed.

In one embodiment, a user can specify the criteria via a query on thefeed items in his/her new feed, and thus a feed may only return objectsof a certain type, certain types of events, feed tracked updates aboutcertain fields, and other criteria mentioned herein. Messages can alsobe filtered according to some criteria, which may be specified in aquery. Such an added query can be added onto a standard query that isused to create the news feed for a user. A first user could specify theusers and records that the first user is following in this manner, aswell as identify the specific feed items that the first user wants tofollow. The query could be created through a graphical interface oradded by a user directly in a query language. Other criteria couldinclude receiving only posts directed to a particular user or record, asopposed to other feed items.

In one embodiment, the filters can be run by defining code triggers,which run when an event, specific or otherwise, occurs. The triggercould then run to perform the filtering at the time the event occurs orwhen a user (who has certain defined triggers, that is configured for aparticular user) requests a display of the feed. A trigger could searchfor certain terms (e.g. vulgar language) and then remove such terms ornot create the feed item. A trigger can also be used to send the feeditem to a particular person (e.g. an administrator) who does notnormally receive the feed item were it not for the feed item containingthe flagged terms.

F. Access Checks

In one embodiment, a user can access a feed of a record if the user canaccess the record. The security rules for determining whether a user hasaccess to a record can be performed in a variety of ways, some of whichare described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/866,184 by Weissmanet al., filed Oct. 2, 2007, titled “METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR CONTROLLINGACCESS TO CUSTOM OBJECTS IN A DATABASE”, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety and for all purposes. For example, a securitylevel table can specify whether a user can see a particular type ofrecord and/or particular records. In one implementation, a hierarchy ofpositions within a tenant is used. For example, a manager can inheritthe access levels of employees that the manager supervises. Field levelsecurity (FLS) can also be used to determine whether a particular feedtracked update about an update to a field can be seen by the user. Thefield change table 920 can be used to identify a field name or field ID,and then whether the user has read access to that field can bedetermined from an FLS table. For example, if a user could not see afield of a social security number, the feed of the user provided to theuser would not include any feed items related to the social securitynumber field.

In one embodiment, a user can edit a feed of a record if the user hasaccess to the record, e.g., deleting or editing a feed item. In anotherembodiment, a user (besides an administrator) cannot edit a feed item,except for performing an action from which a feed item can be created.In one implementation, a user is required to have access to a particularrecord and field for a feed item to be created based on an action of theuser. In this case, an administrator can be considered to be a user withMODIFY-ALL-DATA security level. In yet another embodiment, a user whocreated the record can edit the feed.

G. Posts

In one embodiment, the text of posts are stored in a child table (posttable 950), which can be cross-referenced with event hifeed trackedupdate table 910. Post table 950 can include event ID 951 (tocross-reference with event ID 911), post text 952 to store the text ofthe post, and time/date 953. An entry in post table 950 can beconsidered a feed post object. Posts for a record can also be subject toaccess checks. In one implementation, if a user can view a record thenall of the posts can be seen, i.e. there is not an additional level ofsecurity check as there is for FLS. In another implementation, anadditional security check could be done, e.g., by checking on whethercertain keywords (or phrases) exist in the post. For instance, a postmay not be not provided to specified users if a certain keyword exists,or only provided to specified users if a keyword exists. In anotherembodiment, a table can exist for status updates.

VIII. Subscribing to Users and Records to Follow

As described above, a user can follow users, groups, and records.Embodiments can provide mechanisms for a user to manage which users,groups, and records that the user is currently following. In oneembodiment, a user can be limited to the number of users and records(collectively or separately) that the user can follow. For example, auser may be restricted to only following 10 users and 15 records, or asanother example, 25 total. Alternatively, the user may be permitted tofollow more or less users.

In one embodiment, a user can go to a page of a record and then selectto follow that object (e.g., with a button marked “follow” or “join”).In another embodiment, a user can search for a record and have thematching records show up in a list. The search can include criteria ofrecords that the user might want to follow. Such criteria can includethe owner, the creation date, last comment date, and numerical values ofparticular fields (e.g. an opportunity with a value of more than$10,000).

A follow button (or other activation object) can then reside next toeach record in the resulting list, and the follow button can be selectedto start following the record. Similarly, a user can go to a profilepage of a user and select to follow the user, or a search for users canprovide a list, where one or more users can be selected for followingfrom the list. The selections of subscribing and unsubscribing can addand delete rows in table 920.

In some embodiments, a subscription center acts as a centralized placein a database application (e.g. application platform 18) to manage whichrecords a user subscribes to, and which field updates the user wants tosee in feed tracked updates. The subscription center can use asubscription table to keep track of the subscriptions of various users.In one embodiment, the subscription center shows a list of all the items(users and records) a user is subscribed to. In another embodiment, auser can unsubscribe to subscribed objects from the subscription center.

A. Automatic Subscription

In one embodiment, an automatic subscription feature can ensure that auser is receiving certain feeds. In this manner, a user does not have toactively select certain objects to follow. Also, a tenant can ensurethat a user is following objects that the user needs to be following.

In various embodiments for automatically following users, a default forsmall organizations can be to follow everyone. For big organizations,the default can be to follow a manager and peers. If a user is amanager, the default can be to follow the manager's supervisor, peers,and people that the manager supervises (subordinates). In otherembodiments for automatically following records, records that the userowns may be automatically followed and/or records recently viewed (orchanged) may be automatically followed.

In one example, a new record is created. The owner (not necessarily theuser who created the entity) is subscribed to the entity. If ownershipis changed, the new owner may automatically be subscribed to follow theentity. Also, after a lead convert, the user doing the lead convert maybe automatically subscribed to the new account, opportunity, or contactresulting from the lead convert. In one implementation, the autosubscription is controlled by user preference. That is a user or tenantcan have the auto subscribe feature enabled or not. In one aspect, thedefault is to have the auto-subscribe turned on.

FIG. 9B shows a flowchart illustrating a method 900 for automaticallysubscribing a user to an object in a database system according toembodiments. Any of the following steps can be performed wholly orpartially with the database system, and in particular by one or moreprocessor of the database system.

In step 901, one or more properties of an object stored in the databasesystem are received. The properties can be received from administratorsof the database system, or from users of the database system (which maybe an administrator of a customer organization). The properties can berecords or users, and can include any of the fields of the object thatare stored in the database system. Examples of properties of a recordinclude: an owner of the record, a user that converted the record fromone record type to another record type, whether the first user hasviewed the record, and a time the first user viewed the record. Examplesof properties of a user include: which organization (tenant) the user isassociated with, the second user's position in the same organization,and which other users the user had e-mailed or worked with on projects.

In step 902, the database system receives one or more criteria aboutwhich users are to automatically follow the object. The criteria can bereceived from administrators of the database system, or from one or moreusers of the database system. The users may be an administrator of acustomer organization, which can set tenant-wide criteria or criteriafor specific users (who may also set the criteria themselves). Examplesof the criteria can include: an owner or creator of a record is tofollow the record, subordinates of an owner or creator of a record areto follow the record, a user is to follow records recently viewed(potentially after a specific number of views), records that a user haschanged values (potentially with a date requirement), records created byothers in a same business group as the user. Examples of the criteriacan also include: a user is to follow his/her manager, the user's peers,other users in the same business group as the user, and other users thatthe user has e-mailed or worked with on a project. The criteria can bespecific to a user or group of users (e.g. users of a tenant).

In step 903, the database system determines whether the one or moreproperties of the object satisfy the one or more criteria for a firstuser. In one embodiment, this determination can occur by first obtainingthe criteria and then determining objects that satisfy the criteria. Thedetermination can occur periodically, at time of creation of an object,or at other times. If different users have different criteria, then thecriteria for a particular user or group could be searched at the sametime. Since users of different tenants normally cannot view objects ofanother tenant, certain criteria does not have to be checked. In anotherembodiment, this determination can occur by looking at certainproperties and then identifying any criteria that are met. In yetanother embodiment, the criteria and properties can be used to findusers that satisfy the criteria.

In step 904, if the criteria are satisfied, the object is associatedwith the first user. The association can be in a list that storesinformation as to what objects are being followed by the first user.User subscription table 940 is an example of such a list. In oneembodiment, the one or more criteria are satisfied if one propertysatisfies at least one criterion. Thus, if the criteria are that a userfollows his/her manager and the object is the user's manager, then thefirst user will follow the object.

In one embodiment, a user can also be automatically unsubscribed, e.g.if a certain action happens. The action could be a change in the user'sposition within the organization, e.g. a demotion or becoming acontractor. As another example, if a case gets closed, then usersfollowing the case may be automatically unsubscribed.

B. Feed and Subscription API

In one embodiment, a feed and subscription center API can enable tenantsto provide mechanisms for tracking and creating feed items, e.g., asdescribed above for creating custom feeds by allowing users to addcustom events for tracking. For example, after some initial feed itemsare created (e.g. by administrators of the database system), outsidegroups (e.g. tenants or software providers selling software to thetenants) can ‘enable objects’ for feeds through a standard API. Thegroups can then integrate into the subscription center and the feedtracked update feeds on their own. In one embodiment, the feed andsubscription center API can use a graphical user interface implementedfor the default feed tracking In one embodiment, API examples includesubscribing to an entity by creating a new entity subscription objectfor a particular user ID, or for all users of a tenant (e.g. usersubscription table 940). In one embodiment, obtaining all subscriptionsfor a given user can be performed by using a query, such as “select . .. from EntitySubscription where userid=‘ . . . ’”.

Some embodiments have restriction on non-admin users, e.g. those withoutview all data permissions (VAD). One restriction can be a limit clauseon entity subscription queries (e.g. queries on user subscription table940), e.g., where the limit of the number of operations is less than100. In one embodiment, users are not required to specify an order-by,but if an order-by is specified they can only order on fields on theentity subscription entity. In one implementation, filters on entitysubscription can likewise only specify fields on the entity subscriptionentity. In one aspect, the object ID being followed can be sorted orfiltered, but not the object name.

In one embodiment, one or more restrictions can also be placed on theidentification of feed items in a feed that a user can access. Forexample, if a low-level user (i.e. user can access few objects) isattempting to see a profile feed of a high level user, a maximum numberof checks (e.g. 500) for access rights may be allowed. Such arestriction can minimize a cost of a feed request. In some embodiments,there are restriction on the type of queries (e.g. fields for filtering)allowed to construct on feeds (e.g. on tables in FIG. 9A).

C. Sharing

As mentioned above, users may be restricted from seeing records fromother tenants, as well as certain records from the tenant to which theuser belongs (e.g. the user's employer). Sharing rules can refer to theaccess rules that restrict a user from seeing records that the user isnot authorized to see or access. Additionally, in one implementation, auser may be restricted to only seeing certain fields of a record,field-level security (FLS).

In an embodiment, access rule checks are done upon subscription. Forexample, a user is not allowed to subscribe to a record or type ofrecord that the user cannot access. In one aspect, this can minimize(but not necessarily eliminate) cases where a user subscribes toentities they cannot access. Such cases can slow down news feed queries,when an access check is performed (which can end up removing much of thefeed items). Thus, a minimization of access checks can speed upoperation. In another embodiment, when feed items are createddynamically, access rule checks may be done dynamically at the time ofsubsequent access, and not upon subscription or in addition to at timeof subscription.

An example case where access checks are still performed is when a firstuser follows a second user, but the second user performs some actions onrecords or is following records that the first user is not allowed tosee. The first user may be allowed to follow the second user, and thusthe subscription is valid even though the first user may not be able tosee all of the feed items. Before a feed tracked update is provided to anews feed of the first user, a security check may be performed tovalidate whether the first user has access rights to the feed item. Ifnot, the feed item is not displayed to the first user. In oneimplementation, users can be blocked from feed items that containcertain terms, symbols, account numbers, etc. In one embodiment, anyuser can follow another user. In another embodiment, users may berestricted as to which users, objects, and/or records he/she can follow.

Regarding viewing privileges of a feed, in one embodiment, a user canalways see all of his own subscriptions (even if he's lost read accessto a record). For example, a user can become a contractor, and then theuser may lose access to some records. But, the user may still see thathe/she is following the object. This can help if there is a limit to thenumber of objects that can be followed. To unsubscribe a user may needto know what they are following so they can unsubscribe and subscribe toobjects the user can see. In another embodiment, for access to otherpeople's subscriptions, a user can be required to need read-access onthe record-id to see the subscription. In some embodiments, users withauthorization to modify all data can create/delete any subscription. Inother embodiments, a user can create/delete subscriptions only for thatuser, and not anyone else.

D. Configuration of which Field to Follow

There can be various feed settings for which feed items get added toprofile and record feeds, and which get added to news feeds. In oneembodiment, for profile feeds and entity feeds, feed tracked updates canbe written for all standard and custom fields on the supported objects.In one implementation, feed settings can be set to limit how many andwhich fields of a record are tracked for determining whether a feedtracked update is to be generated. For example, a user or administratorcan choose specific fields to track and/or certain ones not to track. Inanother embodiment, there is a separate limit for the number oftrackable fields (e.g. 20) for a record. Thus, only certain changes maybe tracked in an entity hifeed tracked update and show up in the feed.In yet another embodiment, default fields may be chosen for tracking,where the defaults can be exposed in the subscriptions center.

IX. Adding Items to a Feed

As described above, a feed includes feed items, which include feedtracked updates and messages, as defined herein. Various feeds can begenerated. For example, a feed can be generated about a record or abouta user. Then, users can view these feeds. A user can separately view afeed of a record or user, e.g., by going to a home page for the user orthe record. As described above, a user can also subscribe (follow) touser or record and receive the feed items of those feeds through aseparate feed application (e.g. in a page or window), which is termed“chatter” in certain examples. The feed application can provide each ofthe feeds that a user is following in a single news feed.

A feed generator can refer to any software program running on aprocessor or a dedicated processor (or combination thereof) that cangenerate feed items (e.g. feed tracked updates or messages) and combinethem into a feed. In one embodiment, the feed generator can generate afeed item by receiving a feed tracked update or message, identifyingwhat feeds the item should be added to, and adding the feed. Adding thefeed can include adding additional information (metadata) to the feedtracked update or message (e.g. adding a document, sender of message, adetermined importance, etc.). The feed generator can also check to makesure that no one sees feed tracked updates for data that they don't haveaccess to see (e.g. according to sharing rules). A feed generator canrun at various times to pre-compute feeds or to compute themdynamically, or combinations thereof.

In one embodiment, the feed generator can de-dupe events (i.e. preventduplicates) that may come in from numerous records (and users). Forexample, since a feed tracked update can be published to multiple feeds(e.g. John Choe changed the Starbucks Account Status) and a person canbe subscribed to both the Starbucks account and John Choe, embodimentscan filter out duplicates before adding or displaying the items in anews feed. Thus, the Feed Generator can collapse events with multiplerecords and users for a single transaction into a single feed trackedupdate and ensure the right number of feed tracked updates for theparticular feed. In some embodiments, an action by a user does notcreate a feed item for that user (e.g. for a profile feed of that user),and it is only the feed of the object being acted upon (e.g. updated)for which a feed item is created. Thus, there should not be duplicates.For example, if someone updates the status of a record, the feed item isonly for the record and not the user.

In one embodiment, processor 417 in FIG. 4 can identify an event thatmeets criteria for a feed tracked update, and then generate the feedtracked update. Processor 417 can also identify a message. For example,an application interface can have certain mechanisms for submitting amessage (e.g. “submit” buttons on a profile page, detail page of arecord, “comment” button on post), and use of these mechanisms can beused to identify a message to be added to a table used to create a feedor added directly to a list of feed items ready for display.

A. Adding Items to a Pre-Computed Feed

In some embodiments, a feed of feed items is created before a userrequests the feed. Such an embodiment can run fast, but have highoverall costs for storage. In one embodiment, once a profile feed or arecord feed has been created, a feed item (messages and feed trackedupdates) can be added to the feed. The feed can exist in the databasesystem in a variety of ways, such as a related list. The feed caninclude mechanisms to remove items as well as add them.

As described above, a news feed can be an aggregated feed of all therecord feeds and profile feeds to which a user has subscribed. The newsfeed can be provided on the home page of the subscribing user.Therefore, a news feed can be created by and exist for a particularuser. For example, a user can subscribe to receive entity feeds ofcertain records that are of interest to the user, and to receive profilefeeds of people that are of interest (e.g. people on a same team, thatwork for the user, are a boss of the user, etc.). A news feed can tell auser about all the actions across all the records (and people) who haveexplicitly (or implicitly) subscribed to via the subscriptions center(described above).

In one embodiment, only one instance of each feed tracked update isshown on a user's news feed, even if the feed tracked update ispublished in multiple entities to which the user is subscribed. In oneaspect, there may be delays in publishing news articles. For example,the delay may be due to queued up messages for asynchronous entityhifeed tracked update persistence. Different feeds may have differentdelays (e.g. delay for new feeds, but none of profile and entity feeds).In another embodiment, certain feed tracked updates regarding asubscribed profile feed or an entity feed are not shown because the useris not allowed access, e.g. due to sharing rules (which restrict whichusers can see which data). Also, in one embodiment, data of the recordthat has been updated (which includes creation) can be provided in thefeed (e.g. a file or updated value of a feed can be added as a flashrendition).

Examples are provided below as how it can be determined which feed itemsto add to which news feeds. In one embodiment, the addition of items toa news feed is driven by the following user. For example, the user'sprofile can be checked to determine objects the user is following, andthe database may be queried to determine updates to these objects. Inanother embodiment, the users and records being followed drive theaddition of items to a news feed. Embodiments can also combine these andother aspects. In one embodiment, a database system can befollower-driven if the number of subscriptions (users and records theuser is following) is small. For example, since the number subscriptionsare small, then changes to a small number of objects need to be checkedfor the follower.

Regarding embodiments that are follower-driven, one embodiment can havea routine run for a particular user. The routine knows the users andrecords that the user is following. The routine can poll the databasesystem for new feed tracked updates and messages about the users andrecords that are being followed. In one implementation, the polling canbe implemented as queries. In one embodiment, the routine can run atleast partially (even wholly) on a user device.

Regarding embodiments where a news feed is driven by the record (oruser) being followed, processor 417 can identify followers of the recordafter a feed item is added to the record feed. Processor 417 canretrieve a list of the followers from the database system. The list canbe associated with the record, and can be stored as a related list orother object that is a field or child of the record.

In one embodiment, profile and record feeds can be updated immediatelywith a new feed item after an action is taken or an event occurs. A newsfeed can also be updated immediately. In another embodiment, a news feedcan be updated in batch jobs, which can run at periodic times.

B. Dynamically Generating Feeds

In some embodiments, a feed generator can generate the feed itemsdynamically when a user requests to see a particular feed, e.g., aprofile feed, entity feed, or the user's news feed. In one embodiment,the most recent feed items (e.g. top 50) are generated first. In oneaspect, the other feed items can be generated as a background process,e.g., not synchronously with the request to view the feed. However,since the background process is likely to complete before a user gets tothe next 50 feed items, the feed generation may appear synchronous. Inanother aspect, the most recent feed items may or may not includecomments, e.g., that are tied to feed tracked updates or posts.

In one embodiment, the feed generator can query the appropriate subsetof tables shown in FIG. 9A and/or other tables as necessary, to generatethe feed items for display. For example, the feed generator can querythe event hifeed tracked update table 910 for the updates that occurredfor a particular record. The ID of the particular record can be matchedagainst the ID of the record. In one embodiment, changes to a whole setof records can be stored in one table. The feed generator can also queryfor status updates, posts, and comments, each of which can be stored indifferent parts of a record or in separate tables, as shown in FIG. 9A.What gets recorded in the entity hifeed tracked update table (as well aswhat is displayed) can be controlled by a feed settings page in setup,which can be configurable by an administrator and can be the same forthe entire organization, as is described above for custom feeds.

In one embodiment, there can be two feed generators. For example, onegenerator can generate the record and profile feeds and anothergenerator can generate news feeds. For the former, the feed generatorcan query identifiers of the record or the user profile. For the latter,the news feed generator can query the subscribed profile feeds andrecord feeds, e.g., user subscription table 940. In one embodiment, thefeed generator looks at a person's subscription center to decide whichfeeds to query for and return a list of feed items for the user. Thelist can be de-duped, e.g., by looking at the event number and valuesfor the respective table, such as field name or ID, comment ID, or otherinformation.

C. Adding Information to Feed Hifeed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of a method 1000 for saving information to feedtracking tables according to embodiments. In one embodiment, some of thesteps may be performed regardless of whether a specific event or part ofan event (e.g. only one field of an update is being tracked) is beingtracked. In various embodiments, a processor or set of processors(hardwired or programmed) can perform method 1000 and any other methoddescribed herein.

In step 1010, data indicative of an event is received. The data may havea particular identifier that specifies the event. For example, there maybe a particular identifier for a field update. In another embodiment,the transaction may be investigated for keywords identifying the event(e.g., terms in a query indicating a close, change field, or createoperations).

In step 1020, it is determined whether the event is being tracked forinclusion into feed tables. The determination of what is being trackedcan be based on a tenant's configuration as described above. In oneaspect, the event has an actor (person performing an event), and anobject of the event (e.g. record or user profile being changed).

In step 1030, the event is written to an event hifeed tracked updatetable (e.g. table 910). In one embodiment, this feed tracking operationcan be performed in the same transaction that performs a save operationfor updating a record. In another embodiment, a transaction includes atleast two roundtrip database operations, with one roundtrip being thedatabase save (write), and the second database operation being thesaving of the update in the hifeed tracked update table. In oneimplementation, the event hifeed tracked update table is chronological.In another implementation, if user A posts on user B's profile, thenuser A is under the “created by” 913 and user B is under the object ID912.

In step 1040, a field change table (e.g. field change table 920) can beupdated with an entry having the event identifier and fields that werechanged in the update. In one embodiment, the field change table is achild table of the event hifeed tracked update table.

This table can include information about each of the fields that arechanged. For example, for an event that changes the name and balance foran account record, an entry can have the event identifier, the old andnew name, and the old and new balance. Alternatively, each field changecan be in a different row with the same event identifier. The field nameor ID can also be included to determine which field the values areassociated.

In step 1050, when the event is a post, a post table (e.g. post table950) can be updated with an entry having the event identifier and textof the post. In one embodiment, the field change table is a child tableof the event hifeed tracked update table. In another embodiment, thetext can be identified in the transaction (e.g. a query command),stripped out, and put into the entry at the appropriate column. Thevarious tables described herein can be combined or separated in variousways. For example, the post table and the field change table may be partof the same table or distinct tables, or may include overlappingportions of data.

In step 1060, a comment is received for an event and the comment isadded to a comment table (e.g. comment table 930). The comment could befor a post or an update of a record, from which a feed tracked updatecan be generated for display. In one embodiment, the text can beidentified in the transaction (e.g. a query command), stripped out, andput into the entry at the appropriate column.

D. Reading Information from Feed Hifeed Tracked Update Tables

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of a method 1100 for reading a feed item as partof generating a feed for display according to embodiments. In oneembodiment, the feed item may be read as part of creating a feed for arecord.

In step 1110, a query is received for an event hifeed tracked updatetable (e.g. event hifeed tracked update table 910) for events related toa particular record. In one embodiment, the query includes an identifierof the record for which the feed is being requested. In variousembodiments, the query may be initiated from a detail page of therecord, a home page of a user requesting the record feed, or from alisting of different records (e.g. obtained from a search or frombrowsing).

In step 1120, the user's security level can be checked to determine ifthe user can view the record feed. Typically, a user can view a recordfeed, if the user can access the record. This security check can beperformed in various ways. In one embodiment, a first table is checkedto see if the user has a classification (e.g. a security level thatallows him to view records of the given type). In another embodiment, asecond table is checked to see if the user is allowed to see thespecific record. The first table can be checked before the second table,and both tables can be different sections of a same table. If the userhas requested the feed from the detail page of the record, oneembodiment can skip the security level check for the record since thecheck was already done when the user requested to view the detail page.

In one embodiment, a security check is determined upon each request toview the record feed. Thus, whether or not a feed item is displayed to auser is determined based on access rights, e.g., when the user requeststo see a feed of a record or a news feed of all the objects the user isfollowing. In this manner, if a user's security changes, a feedautomatically adapts to the user's security level when it is changed. Inanother embodiment, a feed can be computed before being requested and asubsequent security check can be made to determine whether the personstill has access right to view the feed items. The security (access)check may be at the field level, as well as at the record level.

In step 1130, if the user can access the record, a field level securitytable can be checked to determine whether the user can see particularfields. In one implementation, only those fields are displayed to theuser. Alternatively, a subset of those the user has access to isdisplayed. The field level security check may optionally be performed atthe same time and even using the same operation as the record levelcheck. In addition, the record type check may also be performed at thistime. If the user can only see certain fields, then any feed itemsrelated to those fields (e.g. as determined from field change table 920)can be removed from the feed being displayed.

In step 1140, the feed items that the user has access to are displayed.In one embodiment, a predetermined number (e.g. 20) of feed items aredisplayed at a time. The method can display the first 20 feed items thatare found to be readable, and then determine others while the user isviewing the first 20. In another embodiment, the other feed items arenot determined until the user requests to see them, e.g., by activatinga see more link.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of a method 1200 for reading a feed item of aprofile feed for display according to embodiments. In one embodiment,the query includes an identifier of the user profile feed that is beingrequested. Certain steps may be optional, as is also true for othermethods described herein. For example, security checks may not beperformed.

In step 1210, a query is directed to an event hifeed tracked updatetable (e.g. event hifeed tracked update table 910) for events having afirst user as the actor of the event (e.g. creation of an account) or onwhich the event occurred (e.g. a post to the user's profile). In variousembodiments, the query may be initiated by a second user from the user'sprofile page, a home page of a user requesting the profile feed (e.g.from a list of users being followed), or from a listing of differentusers (e.g. obtained from a search or from browsing). Various mechanismsfor determining aspects of events and obtaining information from tablescan be the same across any of the methods described herein.

In step 1220, a security check may also be performed on whether thesecond user can see the first user's profile. In one embodiment any usercan see the profile of another user of the same tenant, and step 1220 isoptional.

In step 1230, a security (access) check can be performed for the feedtracked updates based on record types, records, and/or fields, as wellsecurity checks for messages. In one embodiment, only the feed trackedupdates related to records that the person has updated are the ones thatneed security check as the feed items about the user are readable by anyuser of the same tenant. Users of other tenants are not navigable, andthus security can be enforced at a tenant level. In another embodiment,messages can be checked for keywords or links to a record or field thatthe second user does not have access.

As users can have different security classifications, it is importantthat a user with a low-level security cannot see changes to records thathave been performed by a user with high-level security. In oneimplementation, each feed item can be checked and then the viewableresults displayed, but this can be inefficient. For example, such asecurity check may take a long time, and the second user would like toget some results sooner rather than later. The following stepsillustrate one embodiment of how security might be checked for a firstuser that has a lot of feed items, but the second user cannot see mostof them. This embodiment can be used for all situations, but can beeffective in the above situation.

In step 1231, a predetermined number of entries are retrieved from theevent hifeed tracked update table (e.g. starting from the most recent,which may be determined from the event identifier). The retrievedentries may just be ones that match the user ID of the query. In oneembodiment, entries are checked to find the entries that are associatedwith the user and with a record (i.e. not just posts to the useraccount). In another embodiment, those entries associated with the userare allowed to be viewed, e.g. because the second user can see theprofile of the first user as determined in step 1220.

In step 1232, the record identifiers are organized by type and the typeis checked on whether the second user can see the record types. Otherchecks such as whether a record was manually shared (e.g. by the owner)can also be performed. In one embodiment, the queries for the differenttypes can be done in parallel.

In step 1233, if a user can see the record type, then a check can beperformed on the specific record. In one embodiment, if a user can see arecord type, then the user can see all of the records of that type, andso this step can be skipped. In another embodiment, the sharing modelcan account for whether a user below the second user (e.g. the seconduser is a manager) can see the record. In such an embodiment, the seconduser may see such a record. In one implementation, if a user cannot seea specific record, then comments on that record are also not viewable.

In step 1234, field level sharing rules can be used to determine whetherthe second user can see information about an update or value of certainfields. In one embodiment, messages can be analyzed to determine ifreference to a particular field name is made. If so, then field levelsecurity can be applied to the messages.

In step 1280, steps 1231-1234 are repeated until a stopping criterion ismet. In one embodiment, the stopping criteria may be when a maximumnumber (e.g. 100) of entries that are viewable have been identified. Inanother embodiment, the stopping criteria can be that a maximum number(e.g. 500) of entries from the entity hifeed tracked update table havebeen analyzed, regardless of whether the entries are viewable or not.

In one embodiment, a news feed can be generated as a combination of theprofile feeds and the entity feeds, e.g. as described above. In oneimplementation, a list of records and user profiles for the queries insteps 1110 and 1210 can be obtained form user subscription table 940. Inone embodiment, there is a maximum number of objects that can befollowed.

In various embodiments, the entity hifeed tracked update table can bequeried for any one or more of the following matching variables as partof determining items for a feed: CreatedDate, CreatedById,CreatedBy.FirstName, CreatedBy.LastName, ParentId, and Parent.Name. Thechild tables can also be queried for any one or more of the followingmatching variables as part of determining items for a feed: DataType,FieldName, OldValue, and NewValue. A query can also specify how theresulting feed items can be sorted for display, e.g., by event number,date, importance, etc. The query can also include a number of items tobe returned, which can be enforced at the server.

The two examples provided above can be done periodically to create thefeeds ahead of time or done dynamically at the time the display of afeed is requested. Such a dynamic calculation can be computationallyintensive for a news feed, particularly if many users and records arebeing followed, although there can be a low demand for storage.Accordingly, one embodiment performs some calculations ahead of time andstores the results in order to create a news feed.

E. Partial Pre-Computing of Items for a Feed

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of a method 1300 of storing event information forefficient generation of feed items to display in a feed according toembodiments. In various embodiments, method 1300 can be performed eachtime an event is written to the events hifeed tracked update table, orperiodically based on some other criteria (e.g. every minute, after fiveupdates have been made, etc.).

In step 1310, data indicative of an event is received. The data may bethe same and identified in the same way as described for step 1010. Theevent may be written to an event hifeed tracked update table (e.g. table910).

In step 1320, the object(s) associated with the event are identified. Invarious embodiments, the object may be identified by according tovarious criteria, such as the record being changed, the user changingthe record, a user posting a message, and a user whose profile themessage is being posted to.

In step 1330, the users following the event are determined. In oneembodiment, one or more objects that are associated with the event areused to determine the users following the event. In one implementation,a subscription table (e.g. table 940) can be used to find the identifiedobjects. The entries of the identified objects can contain an identifier(e.g. user ID 941) of each the users following the object

In step 1340, the followers of the event are written to a news feedtable along with an event identifier. In one embodiment, each followeris added as a separate entry into the news feed table along with theevent ID. In another embodiment, each of the events for a user is addedas a new column for the row of the user. In yet another embodiment, morecolumns (e.g. columns from the other tables) can be added.

News feed table 960 shows an example of such a table with user ID 961and event ID or pointer 962. The table can be organized in any manner.One difference from event hifeed tracked update table 910 is that oneevent can have multiple entries (one for each subscriber) in the newsfeed table 960. In one embodiment, all of the entries for a same userare grouped together, e.g., as shown. The user U819 is shown asfollowing events E37 and E90, and thus any of the individual feed itemsresulting from those events. In another embodiment, any new entries areadded at the end of the table. Thus, all of the followers for a newevent can be added as a group. In such an embodiment, the event IDswould generally be grouped together in the table. Of course, the tablecan be sorted in any suitable manner.

In an embodiment, if the number of users is small, then the feed itemsin one or more of the tables may be written as part of the same writetransaction. In one implementation, the determination of small dependson the number of updates performed for the event (e.g. a maximum numberof update operations may be allowed), and if more operations areperformed, then the addition of the feed items is performed. In oneaspect, the number of operations can be counted by the number of rows tobe updated, including the rows of the record (which depends on theupdate event), and the rows of the hifeed tracked update tables, whichcan depend on the number of followers. In another embodiment, if thenumber of users is large, the rest of the feed items can be created bybatch. In one embodiment, the feed items are always written as part of adifferent transaction, i.e., by batch job.

In one embodiment, security checks can be performed before an entry isadded to the news feed table 960. In this manner, security checks can beperformed during batch jobs and may not have to be performed at the timeof requesting a news feed. In one implementation, the event can beanalyzed and if access is not allowed to a feed item of the event, thenan entry is not added. In one aspect, multiple feed items for a sameuser may not result from a same event (e.g. by how an event is definedin table 910), and thus there is no concern about a user missing a feeditem that he/she should be able to view.

In step 1350, a request for a news feed is received from a user. In oneembodiment, the request is obtained when a user navigates to the user'shome page. In another embodiment, the user selects a table, link, orother page item that causes the request to be sent.

In step 1360, the news feed table and other tables are accessed toprovide displayable feed items of the news feed. The news feed can thenbe displayed. In one embodiment, the news feed table can then be joinedwith the event hifeed tracked update table to determine the feed items.For example, the news feed table 960 can be searched for entries with aparticular user ID. These entries can be used to identify event entriesin event hifeed tracked update table 910, and the proper informationfrom any child tables can be retrieved. The feed items (e.g., feedtracked updates and messages) can then be generated for display.

In one embodiment, the most recent feed items (e.g. 100 most recent) aredetermined first. The other feed items may then be determined in a batchprocess. Thus, the feed item that a user is most likely to view can comeup first, and the user may not recognize that the other feed items arebeing done in batch. In one implementation, the most recent feed itemscan be gauged by the event identifiers. In another embodiment, the feeditems with a highest importance level can be displayed first. Thehighest importance being determined by one or more criteria, such as,who posted the feed item, how recently, how related to other feed items,etc.

In one embodiment where the user subscription table 940 is used todynamically create a news feed, the query would search the subscriptiontable, and then use the object IDs to search the event hifeed trackedupdate table (one search for each object the user is following). Thus,the query for the news feed can be proportional to the number of objectsthat one was subscribing to. The news feed table allows the intermediatestep of determining the object IDs to be done at an earlier stage sothat the relevant events are already known. Thus, the determination ofthe feed is no longer proportional to the number of object beingfollowed.

In some embodiments, a news feed table can include a pointer (as opposedto an event identifier) to the event hifeed tracked update table foreach event that is being followed by the user. In this manner, the evententries can immediately be retrieved without having to perform a searchon the event hifeed tracked update table. Security checks can be made atthis time, and the text for the feed tracked updates can be generated.

X. Display of a Feed

Feeds include messages and feed tracked updates and can show up in manyplaces in an application interface with the database system. In oneembodiment, feeds can be scoped to the context of the page on which theyare being displayed. For example, how a feed tracked update is presentedcan vary depending on which page it is being displayed (e.g. in newsfeeds, on a detail page of a record, and even based on how the userended up at a particular page). In another embodiment, only a finitenumber of feed items are displayed (e.g. 50). In one implementation,there can be a limit specifically on the number of feed tracked updatesor messages displayed. Alternatively, the limit can be applied toparticular types of feed tracked updates or messages. For example, onlythe most recent changes (e.g. 5 most recent) for a field may bedisplayed. Also, the number of fields for which changes are displayedcan also be limited. Such limits can also be placed on profile feeds andnews feeds. In one embodiment, feed items may also be subject to certainfiltering criteria before being displayed, e.g., as described below.

A. Sharing Rules for Feeds

As mentioned above, a user may not be allowed to see all of the recordsin the database, and not even all of the records of the organization towhich the user belongs. A user can also be restricted from viewingcertain fields of a record that the user is otherwise authorized toview. Accordingly, certain embodiments use access rules (also calledsharing rules and field-level security FLS) to ensure that a user doesnot view a feed tracked update or message that the user is notauthorized to see. A feed of a record can be subject to the same accessrules as the parent record.

In one embodiment, access rules can be used to prevent subscription to arecord that the user cannot see. In one implementation, a user can see arecord, but only some of the fields. In such instances, only items aboutfields that the user can access may be displayed. In another embodiment,sharing rules and FLS are applied before a feed item is being added to afeed. In another embodiment, sharing rules and FLS are applied after afeed item has been added and when the feed is being displayed. When arestriction of display is mentioned, the enforcement of access rules mayoccur at any stage before display.

In some implementations, the access rules can be enforced when a queryis provided to a record or a user's profile to obtain feed items for anews feed of a user. The access rules can be checked andcross-references with the feed items that are in the feed. Then, thequery can only return feed items for which the user has access.

In other implementations, the access rules can be enforced when a userselects a specific profile feed or record feed. For example, when a userarrives on a home page (or selects a tab to see the record feed), thedatabase system can check to see which feed items the user can see. Insuch an embodiment, each feed item can be associated with metadata thatidentifies which field the feed item is about. Thus, in one embodiment,a feed tracked update is not visible unless the associated record and/orfield are visible to the user.

In one example, when a user accesses a feed of a record, an access checkcan be performed to identify whether the user can access the object typeof the record. In one implementation, users are assigned a profile type,and the profile type is cross-referenced (e.g. by checking a table) todetermine whether the profile type of the user can see the object typeof the record.

In some embodiments, access to specific records can be checked, e.g.,after it has been determined that the user can access the record type.Rules can be used to determine the records viewable by a user. Suchrules can determine the viewable records as a combination of thoseviewable by profile type, viewable due to a profile hierarchy (e.g. aboss can view records of profile types lower in the hierarchy), andviewable by manual sharing (e.g. as may be done by an owner of arecord). In one embodiment, the records viewable by a user can bedetermined beforehand and stored in a table. In one implementation, thetable can be cross-referenced by user (or profile type of a user) toprovide a list of the records that the user can see, and the list can besearched to determine if the record at issue is among the list. Inanother implementation, the table can be cross-referenced by record todetermine a list of the profile types that can access the record, andthe list can be searched to find out if the requesting user is in thelist. In another embodiment, the records viewable by a user can bedetermined dynamically at the time of the access check, e.g., byapplying rules to data (such as user profile and hierarchy information)obtained from querying one or more tables.

In other embodiments, checks can be made as to whether a user has accessto certain fields of a record, e.g., after it has been determined thatthe user can access the record. In one aspect, the access check onfields can be performed on results already obtained from the database,to filter out fields that the user cannot see. In one embodiment, thefields associated with retrieved feed items are determined, and thesefields are cross-referenced with an access table that contains thefields accessible by the user (e.g. using the profile type of the user).Such an access table could also be a negative access table by specifyingfields that the user cannot see, as can other access tables mentionedherein. In one embodiment, the field level access table is stored incache at a server.

In one embodiment, a user can see the same fields across all records ofa certain type (e.g. as long as the user can see the record). In oneimplementation, there is a field level access table for each objecttype. The access table can be cross-referenced by user (e.g. via profiletype) or field. For example, a field can be identified along with theprofile types that can see the field, and it can be determined whetherthe user's profile type is listed. In another example, the user can befound and the fields to which the user has access can be obtained. Inanother embodiment, the accessible fields could be specified for eachrecord.

Regarding profile feeds and news feeds, a first user may perform anaction on a record, and a feed tracked update may be generated and addedto the first user's profile feed. A second user who is allowed to followthe first user may not have access rights to the record. Thus, the feedtracked update can be excluded from a news feed of the second user, orwhen the second user views the first user's profile feed directly. Inone embodiment, if a user is already on the detail page, then anotheraccess check (at least at the record level) may optionally not beperformed since a check was already done in order to view the detailpage.

In some embodiments, for profile feeds and news feeds, the feed itemscan be organized by object type. IT can then be determined whether therequesting user can access to those object types. Other access checkscan be done independently or in conjunction with these access checks, asis described above.

B. API Implementation

Various embodiments can implement the access rules in various ways. Inone embodiment, all recent feed items (or more generally events) areretrieved from a feed that is ready for display (e.g. after a feedgenerator performs formatting) or a table. Then, bulk sharing checks canbe applied on the retrieved items. The viewable feed items of the mostrecent set can then be displayed.

In another embodiment regarding a profile feed, for non-VAD (view alldata) users, i.e. users who can see everything, certain functions can beoverridden. In one implementation, a FROM clause in a query can beoverridden to be a pipelined function, e.g., with different parts of thequery being operated on at the same time, but with different operationsof a pipeline. This pipeline function can be given a row limit and themaximum number of sharing checks to run. It can loop, selecting the nextbatch of rows, run sharing checks against them in bulk, and pipe backany IDs which are accessible. In one aspect, in nearly all cases, theuser feed can contain accessible IDs so the sharing checks can pass onthe first loop. However, it is possible the sharing may have changedsuch that this user's access is greatly reduced. In one worst case,embodiments can run sharing checks on up to the maximum number ofsharing check rows (e.g. a default 500) and then terminate the functionwith the IDs which passed so far, possibly zero. Such an exampleincludes a low level person viewing profile feed of CEO.

In some embodiments, if the user has a small number of subscriptions(e.g. <25), then embodiments can first run sharing checks on those IDsand then drive the main query from those accessible IDs, as opposed to asemi join against the subscription and running sharing checks on theresulting rows. In other embodiments, FLS is enforced by building up aTABLE CAST of the accessible field IDs from the cached values. A mainquery can then join against this table to filter only accessible fields.

XI. Filtering and Searching Feeds

It can be possible that a user subscribes to many users and records,which can cause a user's news feed to be very long and include many feeditems. In such instances, it can be difficult for the user to read everyfeed item, and thus some important or interesting feed items may not beread. In some embodiments, filters may be used to determine which feeditems are added to a feed or displayed in the feed, even though a usermay be authorized to see more than what is displayed. Section VII.E alsoprovides a description of filtering based on criteria.

In one embodiment, an “interestingness” filter can function as a modulefor controlling/recommending which feed tracked updates make it to thenews feed when the number of items that a user subscribes to is large.In one such embodiment, a user can specify a filter, which is applied toa user's news feed or to record and profile feeds that the userrequests. Different filters can be used for each. For example,processing can be done on the news feed to figure out which feed trackedupdates are the most relevant to the user. One embodiment can use animportance weight and level/ranking, as described herein. Otherembodiments can include a user specifying keywords for a message andspecifying which records or users are most important.

In one embodiment, a filter can be used that only allows certain feeditems to be added to a feed and/or to be displayed as part of a feed. Afilter can be used such that the removal or non-addition of certain feeditems automatically occur for any new feed items after the filtercriteria are entered. The filter criteria can also be addedretroactively. The criteria of such a filter can be applied via a querymechanism as part of adding a feed item to a table or displaying a feed,as described in sections above. In various embodiments, a user candirectly write a query or create the query through a graphical userinterface.

FIG. 14 is a flowchart of a method 1400 for creating a custom feed forusers of a database system using filtering criteria according toembodiments. Any of the following steps can be performed wholly orpartially with the database system, and in particular by one or moreprocessor of the database system.

In step 1410, one or more criteria specifying which feed items are to bedisplayed to a first user are received from a tenant. In one embodiment,the criteria specifies which items to add to the custom feed. Forexample, the criteria could specify to only include feed items forcertain fields of a record, messages including certain keywords, andother criteria mentioned herein. In another embodiment, the criteriaspecifies which items to remove from the custom feed. For example, thecriteria could specify not to include feed items about certain fields orincluding certain keywords.

In step 1420, the database system identifies feed items of one or moreselected objects that match the criteria. The feed items can be storedin the database, e.g., in one or more of the tables of FIG. 9A. In oneembodiment, the one or more selected objects are the objects that thefirst user is following. In another embodiment, the one or more selectedobjects is a single record whose record feed the first user isrequesting.

In step 1430, the feed items that match the criteria are displayed tothe first user in the custom feed. The generation of text for a feedtracked update can occur after the identification of the feed items(e.g. data for a field change) and before the display of the finalversion of the feed item.

In one embodiment, the criteria are received before a feed item iscreated. In another embodiment, the criteria are received from the firstuser. In one aspect, the criteria may only used for determining feeds todisplay to the first user. In yet another embodiment, the criteria arereceived from a first tenant and applies to all of the users of thefirst tenant. Also, in an embodiment where a plurality of criteria arespecified, the criteria may be satisfied for a feed item if onecriterion is satisfied.

Some embodiments can provide mechanisms to search for feed items ofinterest. For example, the feed items can be searched by keyword, e.g.,as entered by a user. As another example, a tab (or other selectiondevice) can show feed items about or from a particular user. In oneimplementation, only messages (or even just comments) from a particularuser can be selected.

In another embodiment, a user can enter search criteria so that the feeditems currently displayed are searched and a new list of matching feeditems is displayed. A search box can be used to enter keywords.Picklists, menus, or other mechanisms can be used to select searchcriteria. In yet another embodiment, feed comments are text-indexed andsearchable. Feed comments accessibility and visibility can apply on thesearch operation too.

In one embodiment, when a user performs a search of feeds, there can bean implicit filter of the user (e.g., by user ID). This can restrict thesearch to only the news feed of the user, and thus to only record feedsand profile feeds that the user is subscribed. In another embodiment,searches can also be done across feeds of users and records that are notbeing subscribed.

Besides searching for feed items that match a criteria, one also couldsearch for a particular feed item. However, in one embodiment, a usercannot directly query a feed item or feed comment. In such anembodiment, a user can query to obtain a particular profile or recordfeed, and then navigate to the feed item (e.g. as child of the parentfeed). In another embodiment, the relationship from a feed to its parententity (e.g. a record or user profile) is uni-directional. That is auser can navigate from the feed to the parent but not vice versa.

In one embodiment, a user can directly query the child tables, e.g.,comment table 930. Thus, a user could search for comments only that userhas made, or comments that contain certain words. In another embodiment,a user can search for a profile feed of only one user. In yet anotherembodiment, a user can search for profile feeds of multiple users (e.g.by specifying multiple user names or IDs), which can be combined into asingle feed.

XII. Maintaining Records for Follower's Feeds

If every feed item is stored and maintained on a follower's feed or evenin the profile and/or record feeds, the amount of data to be storedcould be massive, enough to cause storage issues in the system. In oneembodiment, the N (e.g. 50) most recent feed items for each feed arekept. However, there can be a need to keep certain older feed items.Thus, embodiments can remove certain feed items, while keeping others.In other embodiments, old feed tracked updates may be archived in a datastore separate from where recent feed items are stored.

In some embodiments, feeds are purged by a routine (also called areaper) that can remove items deemed not worthy to keep (e.g. olditems). Any underlying data structures from which feed items are createdcan also be purged. In one embodiment, the reaper can remove certainitems when new items are added (e.g. after every 5th item added). Asanother example, feed items may be deleted synchronously during the saveoperation itself. However, this may slow down each save operation. Inone embodiment, however, this may be better than incurring a larger costwhen the items are removed at longer intervals. In another embodiment,the reaper can run periodically as a batch process. Such routines canensure that a table size does not become too large. In one aspect, areaper routine can keep the event hifeed tracked update table relativelysmall so the sharing checks are not extremely expensive.

In various embodiments, the reaper can maintain a minimum number (e.g.50 or 100) of feed items per record, maintain a minimum number ofrecords per user (e.g. per user ID), and not deleting feed items (orentire records) which have comments against it. Such embodiments canensure that the detail page and profile page have sufficient data todisplay in a feed. Note that the sharing checks for feed queries can cutdown the number of records further for users with less access. Thus, thenumber of records finally displayed for specific users can besignificantly less than a minimum number for a specific profile orrecord feed. In one embodiment, a reaper deletes data that is older thana specified time (e.g. 6 months or a year).

In one embodiment, the reaper can perform the deletion of feed items(purging) as a batch up deletion. This can avoid deletion of largenumber of records that may lead to locking issues. In anotherembodiment, the reaper can be run often so that the table does notbecome difficult to manage (e.g. size-wise). In this way the reaper canwork on a limited set of records. In one implementation, the reaper mayhave logic that deletes certain items (e.g. by an identification) fromtables (e.g. those in FIG. 9A), or sections of the tables.

XIII. Structured Data in an Information Feed

Some implementations disclosed herein provide for the uploading ofstructured data, described in greater detail below, to anorganization-specific social networking system. The social networkingsystem selectively publishes updates in the feed of a user or recordrelated to the uploaded data.

In some embodiments, users may quickly build a useful application evenon an unfamiliar platform. Users may rapidly create applications loadedwith corporate data from formats such as Excel and Access databases.Some embodiments may include business related templates such as to-dolists and sales project management.

In some embodiments, business users can easily move their structureddata that is now in Excel or in other forms to a cloud-based databasethat is collaborative, real-time, and/or mobile. Platform features maybe enabled on imported objects. An imported object may be packagable.That is, the imported database object may be “packaged” into anapplication such as an org-level application that can be re-used in thefuture.

In some embodiments, fewer requests may be needed at an IT department,since business users may be able to create and manage their owndatabases in the cloud. This in turn may allow the IT department tofocus on tasks that are higher priority and more complex than creatingand customizing objects for various internal departments.

In some embodiments, an administrator may have access to and/or controlover user-uploaded objects. In some embodiments, an administrator mayhave the right to enable and/or disable data import for users.

Some embodiments may provide a strategy for dealing with desktopdatabase management system proliferation. Organizations may havehundreds or thousands of desktop databases that are ungoverned,unmanaged, and/or used by single users instead of shared widely. Desktopdatabases can lead to serious privacy concerns due to lack ofgovernance. However, it is anticipated that prohibiting business unitsfrom creating desktop databases may not work. For example, users couldfind an alternative with commercial or open source tools. Instead,automated tools may be provided to allow users to move existingdatabases into the cloud. Single instances of such desktop databases maybe consolidated into to larger, multi-database instances for simplifiedsecurity, management, and/or governance.

Viral marketing describes a strategy that encourages individuals to passon a marketing message to others, creating the potential for exponentialgrowth in the message's exposure and influence. Like viruses, suchstrategies take advantage of rapid multiplication to explode the messageto thousands, to millions. In some embodiments, giving business usersthe power to use an on-demand computing environment platform withlimited IT investment along with news feed on updates to their data mayencourage viral adoption of the platform. That is, the viral nature ofsocial networking files may be applied to data.

In some embodiments, users of an organization-specific social networkmay log into a limited portion of an on-demand service environment usedto provide the social network. Some users may not have prior experiencewith user interface components such as tabs, list views, etc.Accordingly, a grid view may be provided for allowing users to uploadand/or edit objects that have data and/or metadata. Alternately, oradditionally, users may be able to toggle back-and-forth between gridview and more traditional pages within the on-demand serviceenvironment, such as detail and edit pages.

In some embodiments, structured data may include references to otherdata stored within an on-demand computing services environment withwhich the social networking service is provided. For example, theon-demand computing services environment may provide access to dataobjects such as User, Contact, Case, or Account within the context of aCustomer Relations Management (CRM) service. In this case, thestructured data may include a “Case” column, in which each of the datafields stores a value corresponding to a Case object accessible via thecomputing services environment.

In some embodiments, users may be able to manage their structured datain one place and relate it to existing CRM data and other business data.Users may be able to switch less between applications. The databasecreation and sharing process may have more transparency due to newsfeeds and push of information. These and other changes may cause usersto become significantly more efficient.

FIG. 15 is a flowchart of a method 1500 for performing a structured datalifecycle according to one or more embodiments. The method 1500 showssome of the operations related to receiving, processing, analyzing, andstoring structured data for use in an organization-specific socialnetworking environment. Additional details regarding many of theseoperations are discussed with respect to FIGS. 16-18.

In some embodiments, the method 1500 may be performed at least in partat a computing device configured to provide computing servicesassociated with an on-demand computing services environment and/or anorganization-specific social networking system. For instance, one ormore operations shown in FIG. 1500 may be performed at least in part onapplication server 288 shown in FIG. 2B. Additionally, or alternately,one or more operations may be performed at a client machine incommunication with a server. For instance, the client machine mayexecute a rich client interface for interacting with the computingservices environment.

At 1502, structured data is received. In some embodiments, thestructured data may be received at a computing device associated withthe computing services environment used to provide theorganization-specific social networking system. Alternately, oradditionally, the structured data may be received at a computing deviceassociated with an organization accessing the organization-specificsocial network.

In some embodiments, the data may be received in various ways. Forinstance, the data may be uploaded to the computing services environmentas a file. The file may be selected by a user from a local storagedevice during the upload process. As another example, the data may becopied and pasted from a file into a textbox or other user interfacedisplayed in a web page provided by the computing services environment.As yet another example, data may be retrieved by computing servicesenvironment via a network (e.g., Internet) link provided to thecomputing services environment.

In some embodiments, the types of structured data that may be receivedinclude, but are not limited to: comma separated values (CSVs), tabseparated values (TSVs), Microsoft® Excel® data, custom XML data,Microsoft® Access® Database data, Oracle® Database data, StructuredQuery Language (SQL) data, fixed width data, Google® Documentsspreadsheet data, OpenOffice® spreadsheet data, Salesforce.com® reportdata, or any other type of structured data. In some embodiments, thetypes of structured data may include any data that can be structured ina tabular (i.e. table) format having rows and columns. If the data wereto represent a table, then each column may be a field and each row maybe a data record row. Alternately, some types of non-tabular data may besupported.

In some embodiments, the data upload procedure may be selected based onthe type of data being uploaded. If Microsoft® Access® data is detected,for instance, then a data upload procedure for reading Microsoft®Access® data may be used to receive the data. The data type may bedetermined by analyzing a file extension, a Multipurpose Internet MailExtension (MIME) type, a content type, or other metadata associated withthe data. Alternately, or additionally, the data type may be identifiedby analyzing the data itself. For example, the upload procedure maydetect a frequent and regular occurrence of commas within the data anddeduce that the file type is a CSV text file.

In some embodiments, the data may be received in a compressed form. Forexample, data may be received as a file compressed using the ZIPcompression and archive format.

In some embodiments, the type of data may be determined at least in partby the computing services environment upload procedure. For example, theupload procedure may examine a file type associated with the receiveddata, a MIME/Type of a file, metadata received with the data, or otherinformation to automatically determine a data type.

In some embodiments, a user may specify metadata or other informationfor facilitating the receipt of the data. For instance, the user mayspecify a character that acts as a delimiter between values in thereceived data. The delimiter may be, for example, a comma, a hyphen, atab, or any other character.

In some embodiments, the data may be formatted. Formatting may includecolors, font size, font type, or any other display-relatedfunctionality. Alternately, formatting may not be supported. In someembodiments, formatted data (e.g., spreadsheets) may be accepted forimporting but may be stripped of formatting before being stored in thesystem. Alternately, certain limited formatting may be accepted, andimported data may be stripped of extraneous formatting beyond thatpermitted by the system.

FIG. 19 shows an image of a user interface component that includesstructured data that has been received at the computing servicesenvironment. FIG. 19 includes a database title 1902, a database headerrow 1904, and a data row area 1906. The data row area 1906 includes thedata entries 1908, 1910, and 1912.

The database title 1902 indicates that the database relates to recentevent vendors. In some embodiments, a user may specify the databasetitle when uploading the structured data. Alternately, or additionally,the system may suggest a title for the data based on the contents of thedata, a data record stored in the system that is related to thestructured data, or other information.

The database header row 1904 shows the titles for each column of data inthe database. In FIG. 19, the titles include Vendor Name, Contact,Vendor Deliverables, and other titles.

The data row area 1906 may include various numbers of data rows, witheach row including data for a given data record. In some embodiments,data rows may include data entries for each column provided in theheader row 1904. The data entries may include various types of data. Forexample, the data entry 1908 includes a reference to a different dataentry, a contact object associated with a person named Frank Miller. Thedata entry 1910 includes text indicating that the Vender Deliverable forthat Vendor is “Furniture—tables, chairs.” The data entry 1912 is blank,indicating that no data is recorded for that data entry.

Although FIG. 19 shows the rows for the structured data as including thedifferent data records and the columns for the structured data asincluding the data labels for the data fields included in each datarecord, some embodiments may use an alternate visualization. Forexample, in some embodiments, the columns for the structured data mayinclude the different data records and the columns for the structureddata may include the data labels for the data fields included in eachdata record.

In some embodiments, the uploading process may include checking of thedata by the system and editing of the data by the user uploading thedata. The system may impose restrictions or requirements on data that isuploaded, and the user may need to edit or correct the data so that itmeets the requirements or restrictions. These considerations arediscussed in additional detail with respect to FIGS. 16 and 17.

At 1504, the structured data is shared. The structured data may beshared by associating the structured data with data records,individuals, groups, profiles, or applications that form or participatein the organization-specific social networking system.

In some embodiments, the sharing of the structured data may occurautomatically by actions of the system. For example, if structured datais uploaded to a particular group within the social networking system,then the structured data may automatically be shared with all members ofthe group.

In some embodiments, the sharing of the structured data may occur basedon selections of a user. For example, the user uploading the structureddata may indicate that the structured data should be shared with certainindividuals or associated with an application provided by the on-demandcomputing services environment.

In some embodiments, the shared structured data may appear in variouslocations within the social networking system. For example, thestructured data may appear in a list of recent data files associatedwith a group or profile. As another example, the structured data mayappear on a list view associated with a group or profile.

In some embodiments, the structured data as displayed in the socialnetwork locations may be viewed when a user navigates to these entitiesin the social networking Alternately, or additionally, the structureddata or an indication of the structured data may placed in aninformation feed or provided to users in some other way.

FIG. 20 shows an image of a user interface component that includesstructured data that has been shared. FIG. 20 includes information feed2002, information post 2004, and comment 2006.

An information feed may display information related to a data record,individual, or group within the social networking environment. Forinstance, the information feed 2002 displays information related to theSudden Valley Launch, an event represented as a data record within theorganization-specific social network.

In some embodiments, shared structured data may appear as an informationpost. For example, the vender list shown in FIG. 19 appears asinformation post 2004. By appearing in the information feed 2002 as aninformation post, the structured data may be likely to be seen by usersof the social networking system. In some embodiments, users may commenton the structured data. For instance, the comment 2006 shows a usernamed Scott Jackson commenting on the information post 2004.

In some embodiments, users may specify what types of structured datainformation updates they would like to receive. For instance, a user mayindicate that updates related to new structured data objects, additionsor deletions of data entries within structured data objects, changes tometadata, changes to existing data fields, or some combination thereofshould cause updates to appear in the information feed. If there havebeen many changes to a database that the user is following, then onlysome of the changes may generate updates. For instance, the first threechanges may generate updates, and the remaining changes may be availablein the information feed by clicking a “show more” button.

FIG. 21 shows an image of a user interface component that includesstructured data that has been shared. FIG. 21 includes information posts2102 and 2004. The information post 2102 includes a description area2104, a view link 2106, an edit link 2108, and a data icon 2110.

In some embodiments, the description area 2104 may provide an indicationregarding the subject of the information post. In some embodiments, theinformation posts may show structured data that has been added oredited. For instance, information post 2004 shows a database that hasbeen added to the system, while information post 2102 shows a databasethat has been edited to include a new data record.

In some embodiments, information posts may include links allowing a userto interact with the structured data. Post 2102, for instance, includesthe edit link 2108 and the view link 2106 allowing a user to edit orview the structured data. These links may allow editing directly in theinformation feed or may open the structured data in a separate userinterface component that allows data editing.

In some embodiments, the data icon 2110 may be a thumbnail image of theactual data contained in the structured data object. Alternately, theimage may not represent the actual data contained in the structured dataobject.

At 1506, collaboration on the shared data may occur. In someembodiments, the collaboration on the shared data may include actionstaken by users other than a user who uploaded the data. Thecollaborative actions may include, but are not limited to: editing themetadata describing or providing structure to the structure data,editing the data itself, and editing permissions or properties defininghow the structured data is shared or accessed.

In some embodiments, structured data uploaded into the system may beused to create new information or data visualizations. For example, FIG.22 shows an image of a user interface component displaying structuredinformation. FIG. 22 includes a structured data area 2202, a datavisualization area 2204, and a data visualization object 2206.

In some embodiments, the structured data area 2202 may displaystructured data that has been uploaded into the system, such as thestructured data shown in FIG. 19. This data may be displayed, combined,separated, or otherwise manipulated using data visualization objectsdisplayed in the data visualization area 2204. For instance, the datavisualization object 2206 displays a budget meter. Based on the totalprice of the services of venders in the vender list displayed in thestructured data, the budget meter will show how close the current budgetis to a total budget. Data visualization objects may reflect one or moreformulas. In FIG. 22, for instance, the data meter reflects a summationof the values in the Total Price column of the database. Thus, if avalue in the Total Price column were to be changed, the datavisualization object may be updated to reflect the changed value of thesummation formula. In some embodiments, many such data visualizationobjects may be created by a user or may be provided by the computingservices environment and selected by the user. At 1508, the shared datamay be archived or deleted. Archiving or deleting the shared data mayinclude operations for storing the shared data to a long-term storagemedium, creating a custom database object for containing the shareddata, or removing data from appearing in the social networking system.

In some embodiments, operations related to archiving or deleting thedata may occur at the request of the user. For instance, a user mayrequest that data be deleted or saved.

In some embodiments, operations related to archiving or deleting thedata may occur automatically. For example, the system may automaticallyarchive or delete data that has not been edited for a designated periodof time or that has been in the system for a designated length of time.

FIG. 16 is a flowchart of a method 1600 for processing structured dataaccording to one or more embodiments. The method 1600 may be used toreceive, edit, share, collaborate on, archive, delete, and/or storestructured data. In some embodiments, the method 1600 may be performedat a computing device used to provide social networking services and/oron-demand computing services, such as the computing devices discussed inrelation to FIGS. 1A-2B. The computing device may be in communicationwith a client machine accessing the social networking services and/oron-demand computing services. The method 1600 may be initiated when datais received by the computing device, when triggered by a user, or whentriggered by computing programming instructions executed at thecomputing device.

Data is received into the computing services environment at 1602. Insome embodiments, the receipt of the data 1602 may be substantiallysimilar to the receipt of the data at operation 1502 described withrespect to FIG. 15.

At 1604, a determination is made as to whether to edit the receiveddata. In some embodiments, the determination may be made automatically.For example, the data may be analyzed by the system, and the analysismay indicate an inconsistency, a data typing error, a missing columnheader, missing metadata, missing data, or any other problem. Fixing thedetected problem may be deemed optional or mandatory, depending on therequirements of the system and the type of problem detected. When aproblem is detected, a user may be notified and/or provided with aninterface to edit the data. Verification of uploaded data is discussedin additional detail with respect to FIG. 17.

In some embodiments, the determination made at 1604 may be made by auser. A user may review the uploaded data and make a decision to editthe data. For instance, the data may contain errors or omissions or mayhave missing or erroneous metadata.

When receiving edited data, various editing and customization featuresmay be supported. For instance, a user may be able to add new columns(fields), delete columns, change the order of columns, modify layouts,create filtered list views, share structured data, report structureddata, add validation rules, and/or perform other types of datamanipulation.

In some embodiments, some customizations or capabilities that mightotherwise be possible using the platform may not be available to certainusers. For example, end users may not be able to add custom computingprogramming code or custom markup to databases created using thestructured data techniques described herein. However, in alternateembodiments, any of these features may be made available to any users.

At 1606, edited data is received. The receipt of edited data may includeany operations for receiving edited data. For instance, a user interfacemay be provided via a web browser or stand-alone application. The userinterface may be capable of receiving input at a client machine andtransmitting the received input to a computing device used to processthe structured data.

FIGS. 23 and 24 show images of structured data displayed in a userinterface component provided according to one embodiment. FIGS. 23 and24 include data header 2302, data entry 2304, and data entry 2306.

The structured data shown in FIGS. 23 and 24 is in the process of beingedited. In FIG. 23, a value is being typed in for the data header 2302.In FIG. 24, the edited data header 2302 has the value of Status.Additionally, the status for the vender We Have People has been set toConfirmed in data entry 2304, while the status for the vender Gelb MusicCompany has been set to Deposit paid in data entry 2306.

At 1608, the structured data is published. In some embodiments,publishing the structured data may include any operations forreferencing the data within the social networking system and/orcomputing services environment. For instance, the structured data may beuploaded to a particular account, profile, group, or other data recordthat is accessible via the social networking system. In this case,publishing the structured data may include inserting a reference to thestructured data in an information feed or list associated with the datarecord. Users accessing the data record may then be able to see that thedata record is linked to the structured data.

At 1610, the structured data is shared within the social networkingsystem. In some embodiments, the structured data may be shared as awhole, rather than on an entry by entry basis. That is, a user who haspermission to view or edit a structured data file may have the abilityto view or edit all of the data in the file. Alternately, permissionsmay be assigned such that a user may be limited to viewing or editingonly certain portions of a structured data file.

In some embodiments, one or more of the following sharing rules may beimposed. If a user posts structured data on a record, the user must haveaccess to the record to see the structured data. If the user postsstructured data on the user's feed, the structured data is public to theuser's organization and the user can see the structured data. If theuser posts structured data on a public collaboration group, regardlessif the user is a member, the user can see the structured data. If theuser posts structured data file on a private collaboration group, theuser must have access to the private group to see the structured data.For cross-posted structured data, such as structured data from contentor structured data posted to various locations, the user can see thestructured data if the user has permission to see it via a sharing rulesuch as one of the aforementioned sharing rules.

In some embodiments, a user may have permission to view the structureddata but not to edit the structured data. In some embodiments, a usermay be granted permission to view and/or edit all structured data. Insome embodiments, permission to modify the schema of structured data(e.g. adding a new column, deleting a column or changing the type orname of the column) may be granted to anyone that has edit access andthe owner.

The preceding examples of sharing rules are not intended to be limiting.Rather, the provider of the computing services environment or a userassociated with an organization accessing the computing servicesenvironment may strategically determine sharing rules based on factorssuch as privacy and security concerns, data protection, and the typesand numbers of users who may be using the system.

At 1612, the shared data may be collaborated on. In some embodiments,the collaboration performed at 1612 may be substantially similar tocollaboration performed at operation 1506 shown in FIG. 15. Thecollaboration may include any operations related to editing the shareddata, sharing the data with more or fewer users, linking or unlinkingthe shared data to data records, or other forms of data manipulation.

At 1614, a determination is made as to whether to promote the shareddata to a custom object. In some embodiments, a custom object may be atechnique for storing the data in a storage medium such as a databasethat allows more complex and/or enduring interaction with ormanipulation of the data. For example, when stored as a custom object,the data may be more permanent than when stored only as structured data.As another example, data stored as a custom object may be divided on arow-by-row basis for the purposes of assigning viewing or editingpermissions. As yet another example, data stored as a custom object maybe more easily displayed or manipulated within the computing servicesenvironment via on-demand computing services.

In some embodiments, promoting the shared data to a custom object mayincrease the platform-level functionality that may be used inconjunction with the data. For instance, the system may allow customdatabase objects to be used in conjunction with workflows, reportgeneration, custom programming language instructions, custom markup, orother platform-level functionality. Alternately, the shared data may bepromoted to a custom object for another reason, and some or all of theplatform functionality may be available even for data that has not beenpromoted to a custom object.

In some embodiments, the determination made at 1614 may be made by auser. For example, a user may request that the shared data should bepromoted into a custom object. Alternately, or additionally, thedetermination may be made automatically. For instance, the system maysuggest that shared data be promoted to a custom object if one or morecriteria are met. These criteria may include a length of time that thedata has been in the system, an amount or frequency of viewing orediting of the data activity that has occurred, a size of the data, orany other factors.

If it is determined to promote the shared data to a custom object, thenat 1616 the shared data is promoted. In some embodiments, promoting theshared data to a custom object may include changing a storage structureof the shared data within a database. Implementation details regardingthe storage of shared data in a database, including the promotion ofshared data to a custom object, are discussed in more detail withrespect to FIG. 18.

In some embodiments, at least some of the operations shown in FIG. 16may be performed at least in part by an administrator. For example, alevel of administrative authority may be required to create a customobject at 1616. In this case, a user may request that the shared data bepromoted to a custom object at 1614, and an administrator may respond tothe request by actually creating the custom object at 1616. Alternately,the system may be configured such that any of the operations shown inFIG. 16 may be performed by the system itself automatically or inaccordance with requests by end users.

At 1618, a determination is made as to whether to archive or delete theshared data. In some embodiments, the determination may be made by auser. For instance, a user acting as an owner or editor of thestructured data may be able to request that the data be archived ordeleted. Such a request may be made after the data has served itspurpose.

In some embodiments, the determination may be made at least in part bythe system storing the data. For instance, the system may determine thata database has not been edited or accessed for a designated period oftime, such as for 6 months. Then, the system may transmit a message to auser such as an administrator, an owner of the database, or an editor ofthe database asking if the shared data may be archived or deleted.

In some embodiments, the types of actions that may be taken by a userwhen collaborating on the shared data may be limited to a permission orrole assigned to the user or a group in which the user is a member. Forinstance, in the case of a database object posted to a group,modification of the metadata and/or data may be limited to an owner ofthe group, an owner of the database object, or other users designated bythe database object owner or group owner. Other users may be limited toviewing the database object. The types of limitations to impose may bestrategically selected based on factors such as the desired level ofsecurity, the desired level of data protection, the size of the group,and the members of the group. Further, as discussed with respect toFIGS. 27-29, sharing permissions may be granular, adjustable, andcustomizable.

At 1620, the shared data is deleted. The operations performed when theshared data is deleted may be strategically determined based on factorssuch as the operating procedures for the social networking system. Forinstance, one or more of the following operations may be performed: thedata may be deleted from a storage device, references to the data may beremoved from the social networking system, indications of the data maybe removed from information feeds within the social networking system,the data may be unlinked from data records within the computing servicessystem, the data may be removed from a cache, and/or the data may bemoved to a less accessible storage system.

At 1622, the shared data is archived. Archiving the shared data mayinclude performing any operations for storing the shared data so that itmay later be retrieved. In some embodiments, the archived data may betransferred from an easily-accessed storage medium, such as a cache, toa long-term storage medium, such as an archival storage system. In someembodiments, references to the archived data may be removed from thesocial networking system and/or the data records displayed in thecomputing services environment. The archived data may be retrievablelater by submitting a request or by navigating to a list of archiveddata. In some embodiments, the archived data may not actually be moved,and instead may simply be removed from lists of active content (e.g.,for a particular data record).

FIG. 17 shows a structured data analysis method, performed in accordancewith one embodiment. Some portions of the structured data analysismethod shown in FIG. 17 may be similar to the methods shown in FIGS. 15and 16. Accordingly, FIG. 17 is described primarily with respect toadditions and differences not shown in FIGS. 15 and 16.

At 1702, the data is received for importing into the social networkingsystem. The receipt of data is also discussed with reference tooperations 1502 and 1602 shown in FIGS. 15 and 16. When the data isreceived, it may be associated with a data record in the computingservices environment. For instance, the data may be received after auser clicks an “import” button while viewing a data record.

At 1704, the received data is analyzed to create a metadata structure.In some embodiments, the metadata may include any information related tostructuring, typing, naming, classifying, or otherwise providing contextto the data.

In some embodiments, the metadata may include column names. The columnnames may be identified by selecting the first data value in each columnof the uploaded data. Alternately, the uploaded data may specify thecolumn names or other metadata through data formatting, XML, or someother mechanism. As discussed with respect to FIGS. 15 and 16, the dataupload process may be strategically determined based on the type of databeing uploaded.

In some embodiments, a data column may be associated with a data fieldtype. The data field type may specify a classification identifying oneof various types of data that determines the possible values for thattype, the operations that can be done on that type, and/or the way thevalues of that type are stored.

In some embodiments, some data columns may be strongly typed. A datacolumn may be associated with a data type, and each value of a datafield corresponding to that data column may need to comply with the datatype. Alternately, or additionally, some data columns may be weaklytyped. The data values may be subject to implicit type conversion oroverloading.

In some embodiments, a data entry having a data field that does notcomply with the data type of its respective column may not be saved.Alternately, such a data entry may be saved. For instance, the dataentry may be flagged as having an error, and the error may be correctedduring editing.

In some embodiments, a data column may be associated with more than onedata field type. For instance, a data column may be configured to acceptnumbers or text values.

In some embodiments, the available data field types may be strategicallydetermined based on uses of the structured data. For example, theavailable field types may be determined based on commonly stored valuesin database, based on the functionality of the social networking system,or based on likely uses of the structured data system.

In some embodiments, one or more data field types may be supported. Datafield types other than those in the following lists may be supported,and not all of the data field types included in the following lists needbe supported. The available data field types may include text values,uniform resource indicator (URI) values, World Wide Web link values,e-mail address values, phone number values, currency values, numericvalues. The available data field types may include a choice valuerestricted to one of a list of choices, a checkbox value restricted to abinary value (e.g., yes/no, true/false, on/off), a user value restrictedto an identifier of a user of the social networking system, anattachment value that contains a reference to an uploaded file, aduration value that specifies a period of time, a date and/or time valueformatted according to a calendar date and/or time value, a locationvalue restricted to an address or other indication of location, a listof entries restricted to a plurality of entries from a specificcategory, a link value restricted to a link to another data entry of aspecific category.

In some embodiments, data types may support restrictions. For instance,a number data type may be limited to positive numbers, integers, or someother number type. As another example, a text data type may be limitedto text strings shorter than a designated number of characters.

In some embodiments, a data field type may include a foreign databasekey within the computing services environment. The foreign database keydata type may be limited to database keys associated with records storedin a database accessible via the computing services environment. Forinstance, the foreign database key data type may be limited to adatabase key associated with an Opportunity or Case database objectaccessible via the computing services environment.

In some embodiments, a data field type may be identified by determiningthat many or most data values in a data column are of a particular datafield type. The threshold for identifying a data column as having aparticular data field type may be a percentage value (e.g., 95% of thevalues) or a numerical value (e.g., all values but 5). The thresholdsfor identifying data types may be strategically determined based on thetype of data being uploaded, the technical ability of the user uploadingthe data, or any other considerations. Exceptions to the identified datafield type for a data column may be identified as errors at 1708.

In some embodiments, the metadata may include formulas. In someinstances, formulas may be performed at the column level. For instance,one column in a database may be a “unit price,” while a second columnmay be a “number of units.” In this case, a third column may be a “totalprice.” The third column may be defined not as independently providedvalues, but rather as the product of the first and second columns. Insome embodiments, formulas may be provided at the cell level. That is,one data field may be defined as the product of two other data entries,irrespective of operations and values for other data fields in the samecolumns.

At 1706, the metadata structure is applied to the received data tocreate structured data. In some embodiments, the received data may beseparated into a plurality of data entries. Each data entry may have aplurality of data fields. At least some of the data fields may beassigned a respective data value. However, some data fields may not havea value.

In some embodiments, the data types identified at 1704 may be associatedto the data fields. Assigning the types to the data fields may involvechecking each of the data fields to determine whether the data fieldscorrespond with the assigned data type.

In some embodiments, applying the metadata structure to the receiveddata may include establishing a data object for storing in a database.That is, the received data may be structured to facilitate storing in adatabase.

In some embodiments, applying the metadata structure to the receiveddata may include establishing column headers, establishing a label forthe received data, or establishing any other contextual information forthe received data.

In some embodiments, applying the metadata structure to the receiveddata may include verifying foreign database keys. For example, a columnin the received data may include foreign database keys corresponding todatabase entries stored elsewhere in the database. These foreigndatabase keys may be checked against the actual database to determinewhether the foreign database keys are valid.

In some embodiments, a default data type may be used when a morespecific data type is not determined. For instance, a data column thatincludes different data fields with values that include numbers, text,currency, and dates may be assigned a data type of “text.”

At 1708, a determination is made as to whether the structured datacontains errors. In some embodiments, the determination may be based atleast in part on the application of the metadata structure to thereceived data at 1706. For example, mismatches between data values anddata field types may be flagged as errors in 1708.

In some embodiments, determining whether the structured data containserrors may include requesting input from a user. For instance, the dataand metadata may be presented to the user and the user may be requestedto identify any errors. The errors may include errors present in thedata as originally uploaded (e.g., missing values) or errors introducedduring the upload process (e.g., incorrectly identified data field typesor column headers).

In some embodiments, determining whether the structured data containserrors may include comparing the structured data against one or morelimitations or requirements imposed by a provider of the computingservices environment or the social networking system. For example, thesystem may impose a limit of between 1 and 1,000,000 data rows on anupload and a limit of between 1 and 1,000,000 data columns on an upload.

In some embodiments, limits may be imposed for the total size of thestructured data object. Alternately, or additionally, limits may beimposed on individual data uploads. In the case of limits on individualdata uploads, a user may upload data beyond the limits by breaking thedata into chunks that each fall below the limits.

In some embodiments, determining whether the structured data containserrors may include comparing the structured data against one or morevalidation rules. Validation rules may specify properties for the valuesstored in data entries and data fields. For instance, a validation rulemay specify that a certain data field must have a value for the dataentry associated with that data field to be saved. As another example, avalidation rule may specify a set of acceptable values for a given datafield.

FIG. 25 shows an image of a user interface in which a validation rule isestablished, displayed in accordance with one embodiment. FIG. 25includes a data record identifier 2502, a data record field 2504, anddata record values 2506, 2508, 2510, and 2512.

The linkage between the data record 2502 and the data record field 2504indicates that each data record in the structured data that has a valuefor Vender Name should also have a value for the status data recordfield 2504. The linkages between the status data record field 2504 andthe data record values 2506, 2508, 2510, and 2512 indicates that thevalue of the status field for each data record should be one of:Researching, Negotiating, On Hold, and Order Placed.

When an error is detected, an indication of the error is provided at1710. In some embodiments, providing the indication of the error mayinclude any operation for logging the error and/or notifying a user ofthe error. For instance, a user interface component displayed at adisplay device may be updated to include an error message. The errormessage may include an indication of the type of error that hasoccurred, a way in which the error may be corrected, or any otherinformation.

FIG. 26 shows an image of a user interface in which an indication of anerror is provided, displayed in accordance with one embodiment. FIG. 26includes a data record 2602, a data record field 2604, and an errormessage 2606. As shown in FIG. 26, a user entered the data record 2602as a new data record having a vendor name of Etsy. Then, the userattempted to move to a different data record without specifying a statusfor the status data record field 2604. Because a value is required forthe status data record field 2604, the error message 2606 is displayed.As stated in the error message 2606, the data record 2602 will not besaved unless a value is entered for the status data record field 2604.

At 1712, revised data and/or metadata may be received. In someembodiments, the revised data and/or metadata may be received via a userinterface for editing the data directly in a web page. Alternately, theuser may edit the data and/or metadata on a local computing device andupload the edited data to the computing services environment.

In some embodiments, the revised data and/or metadata may includechanges to data types provided by the system. For instance, the systemmay determine that a data column has a data type of number if all or themajority of data values included in the data column are numbers.However, a user may be able to change the data type to text if, forexample, the user knows that text values will later be added to thecolumn.

At 1714, the structured data and the metadata are stored. In someembodiments, storing the structured data and metadata may include anyoperations for causing the structured data and metadata to be maintainedin a persistent state. For example, the structured data and metadata maybe stored on a storage medium or in a storage system. The structureddata and metadata may be stored within a database table of a database,such as database 22 shown in FIG. 1B. The database may be accessible viaan on-demand computing services environment. Database schema for storingthe structured data are discussed in additional detail with respect toFIG. 18.

In some embodiments, fixing the identified errors may not be required.For instance, a user may decide to store a database object that haserrors and fix the database object later or collaborate with other userson fixing the errors.

At 1716, the structured data is published to the social networkingsystem. Publishing the structured data to the social networking systemmay allow collaboration on the structured data, joint editing of thestructured data, information updates regarding changes to the structureddata, and other social media functionality.

In some embodiments, restrictions on viewing the database object createdby uploading the structured data may be imposed. The restrictions may bebased at least in part on a data record or social networking group withwhich the database object is associated. For instance, posting adatabase object to a data record within the on-demand computing servicesenvironment may require access to the record to see the file. Posting afile on a user's feed may require the file to be public to the org inorder to see the file. Posting a file on a public collaboration groupmay allow the poster to see the file regardless of membership in thegroup. However, posting a file on a private collaboration group mayrequire access to the private group to see the file.

In some embodiments, the publication of structured data to the socialnetworking system may allow a user to specify sharing permissions forviewing and/or editing the structured data. FIGS. 27-29 show images of auser interface for publishing and sharing structured data within thecomputing services environment, displayed in accordance with oneembodiment. FIGS. 27-29 include a sharing configuration user interface2702, a share with people tab 2704, a share with groups tab 2706, and ashare outside Chatter tab 2708.

In FIG. 27, the share with people tab 2704 is selected. Selection of theshare with people tab 2704 may allow access to the sharing with peopleconfiguration area 2706. The sharing with people configuration area 2706includes a search box 2708, a directory navigation list 2710, a list ofprofiles 2712, a profile indication area 2714, a profile status area2716, and sharing settings 2718 and 2720.

The search box 2708 may be used to search for user profiles, and thedirectory navigation list 2710 may be used to navigate a profiledirectory to locate user profiles. The list of profiles 2712 shows theprofiles located by search or navigation. The profile indication area2714 shows the name and role of an individual named Fred Arthur. Theprofile status area 2716 shows that the sharing status of Fred Arthurfor the Vender List was last updated on May 3, 2010 at 6:00 pm. Thesharing setting 2718 indicates that Fred Arthur has permission to editthe Vender List. In contrast, the sharing setting 2720 shows thatChristopher Battah has permission to view the Vendor List.

In FIG. 28, the share with groups tab 2706 is selected. Selection of theshare with groups tab 2706 may allow access to the share with the groupconfiguration area 2802. The share with the group configuration area2802 includes a group search box 2804 that may be used to search forgroups. The area 2802 also includes a list of groups 2804, which itselfincludes groups 2806, 2808, and 2810. In a manner similar to individualprofiles as discussed with respect to FIG. 27, entire groups of usersmay be given permission to view or edit the structured data.

In FIG. 29, the share outside Chatter tab 2708 is selected. Selection ofthe share outside Chatter tab 2708 may allow access to the share outsideChatter configuration area 2902. Using the share outside Chatterconfiguration area, the structured data may be shared with people orentities who are not users of the social networking system and/or thecomputing services environment. These users may access the structureddata by providing authentication information such as a username, ane-mail address, and/or a password. For instance, a Contractor namedBrian Dills, who is identified by e-mail address, is listed at entry1904 in the share outside Chatter configuration area 2902. This user hasbeen assigned permission to edit the structured data at permissionsconfiguration area 2906.

At 1718, a determination is made as to whether to create a customdatabase object. At 1720, the custom database object is created. Thecreation of a custom database object is discussed in greater detail withreference to operations 1614 and 1616 in FIG. 16 and with reference toFIG. 18.

In some embodiments, at least some of the operations shown in FIG. 17may be performed at least in part by an administrator. For example, alevel of administrative authority may be required to create a customobject at 1720. In this case, a user may request that the shared data bepromoted to a custom object at 1718, and an administrator may respond tothe request by actually creating the custom object at 1720. Alternately,the system may be configured such that any of the operations shown inFIG. 17 may be performed by the system itself automatically or inaccordance with requests by end users. At 1722, the structured data ismaintained, archived, or deleted. In some embodiments, the maintaining,archiving, or deleting of the data performed at 1722 may besubstantially similar to operations 1618, 1620, and 1622 described inrelation to FIG. 16.

FIG. 18 is a database configuration diagram 1800 of a database forstoring structured data according to one or more embodiments. Thedatabase configuration diagram 1800 includes a custom object types table1802, a custom objects data table 1804, a standard object types table1806, a standard object definitions table 1808, and a standard objectsdata table 1810.

In some embodiments, a database may include a variety of standardobjects. Standard objects may be used to provide standard services suchas customer relations management (CRM), sales, and service. For example,standard objects may include Account, Contact, Case, Opportunity, andothers.

In some embodiments, standard object types may be associated with a keyprefix. The key prefix may be used to distinguish standard objects typesin a table of standard objects. For example, the standard object typestable 1806 links standard object types to associated key prefixes. Inthis table, the Account standard object type is linked to key prefixkpf7. Thus, each Account standard object may have kpf7 as the firstportion of its data id.

A structured data object is referred to in FIG. 18 and the associateddiscussion as a Chatter Database, in part to distinguish the structureddata object from the database in which it is contained and from otherobjects stored in that database. A Chatter Database object may be storedas a standard object. In this case, the standard object types mayinclude a Chatter Database type. For example, the standard object typestable 1806 includes the Chatter Database type, which is associated withthe key prefix kpf10.

In some embodiments, a standard object may be associated with adefinition. For example, the standard object definitions table 1808includes definitions of various Chatter Database objects. As shown inthe standard object definitions table 1808, each Chatter Database objectdefinition may be associated with a definition identifier. Eachdefinition identifier may be preceded by the Chatter Database key prefixkpf10 to indicate that the defined object is a Chatter Database.

In some embodiments, the standard object definitions table 1808 maystore identifiers for individual Chatter Database objects. For example,a Vender Definitions object is linked with the Chatter Databaseidentifier kpf10_id1.

In some embodiments, the database tables shown in FIG. 18 may includecolumns not shown in FIG. 18. For example, the standard objectdefinitions table 1808 and the custom object types table 1802 may storemetadata describing the standard and custom objects referenced therein.This metadata may include any metadata referred to herein with respectto the structured data, such as column headers, data field types,structured data names, sharing information, or any other relatedmetadata. As another example, the standard object definitions table 1808may store information such as metadata and definitions for standardobjects other than the Chatter Database standard object. For instance,the standard objects table may store data types and column headers forthe Account object.

In some embodiments, the data for standard objects may be stored in thestandard objects data table 1810. Metadata stored in the standard objectdefinitions table 1808 may define the columns and values for aparticular Chatter Database stored in the standard objects data table1810.

In some embodiments, a data row in the standard objects data table 1810may be preceded by an identifier specifying the type and instance of thestandard object with which it is associated. For example, the standardobjects data table 1810 includes data identifiers kpf10_id1_1,kpf10_id1_2, and kpf10_id1_3, which each signify that the data in thoserows belongs to the Vendor Definitions Chatter Database object.

In some embodiments, structured data objects may be stored as customobjects, as discussed with respect to operations 1614, 1616, 1718, and1720 shown in FIGS. 16 and 17. Whereas standard objects may be definedby the provider of the on-demand computing services environment, customobjects may be defined by an entity using the on-demand computingservices environment.

In some embodiments, custom objects may be similar in many ways tostandard objects. For example, custom object types may be stored in acustom object types table 1802. The custom object types table 1802 maylink custom object types to key prefixes used to reference dataassociated with those custom object types. For instance, the Contractcustom object type shown in 1802 is associated with key prefix kpf1. TheContract custom object may be a Chatter Database standard object thatwas elevated to a custom object, as discussed with respect to FIGS. 16and 17.

In some embodiments, the custom object types table 1802 may storemetadata for some or all of the custom object types. For example, thecustom object types table 1802 may store metadata for the ContractChatter Database object stored as a custom object. The metadata mayinclude column headers, data field types, or any other metadatadescribing the Chatter Database object.

In some embodiments, the custom object data table 1804 may store thedata associated with custom objects defined by custom object definitionsin table 1802. For example, the custom object data table 1804 includes acustom object identified by identifier kpf1_id1, which indicates thatthe custom object is an instance of the Contract custom object.

In some embodiments, the custom object data table 1804 may include foreach custom object fields corresponding to the metadata included in thecustom object types table 1802. For example, the Contract custom objectmay include data fields such as date signed, contract status, firstcontracting party, second contracting party, and contract terms.

In some embodiments, the data included in the custom object data table1804 may include foreign keys associated with other database objects.For example, the contract terms field associated with the Contractobject may store foreign keys to the Contract Terms custom objectdefined in the custom object types table 1802.

In some embodiments, two or more of the tables shown in FIG. 18 may bestored in the same table within the database. For example, the standardand custom object types tables 1802 and 1806 may be stored in the samedatabase table, such as a generic object types table. As anotherexample, the standard object data table 1810 and the custom object datatable 1804 may be stored in the same database table, such as a genericdata object data table.

In some embodiments, the database tables shown in FIG. 18 may be storedin a multitenant database accessible to a plurality of tenants. Themultitenant database may be accessible to the tenants at least in partvia an on-demand computing services environment. A multitenant databaseis discussed in greater detail with respect to FIGS. 1A-2B.

In some embodiments, a database configuration may be used that differsfrom that shown in FIG. 18. For instance, in some embodiments nodistinction may be made between standard and custom objects. As anotherexample, various kinds or classifications of database objects may besupported. As yet another example, standard and custom objects may bestored in the database in a manner different than that shown in FIG. 18.In some embodiments, the storage technique for the structured dataobjects may be strategically chosen based on factors such as the type,number, size, and variety of stored structured data objects.

In some embodiments, the operations described herein may be performed ata server capable of providing services for providing an on-demandcomputing services environment. For example, at least some of theoperations described herein may be performed at the app servers 288discussed with respect to FIG. 2B. Alternately, or additionally,operations may be performed at the query servers 282, another servershown in FIG. 2B, or in a separate server not shown in FIG. 2B.

The specific details of the specific aspects of the present inventionmay be combined in any suitable manner without departing from the spiritand scope of embodiments of the invention. However, other embodiments ofthe invention may be directed to specific embodiments relating to eachindividual aspects, or specific combinations of these individualaspects.

While examples of the present invention are often described herein withreference to an embodiment in which an on-demand enterprise servicesenvironment is implemented in a system having an application serverproviding a front end for an on-demand database service capable ofsupporting multiple tenants, the present invention is not limited tomulti-tenant databases nor deployment on application servers.Embodiments may be practiced using other database architectures, i.e.,ORACLE®, DB2® by IBM and the like without departing from the scope ofthe embodiments claimed.

It should be understood that the present invention as described abovecan be implemented in the form of control logic using hardware and/orusing computer software in a modular or integrated manner. Other waysand/or methods to implement the present invention are possible usinghardware and a combination of hardware and software.

Any of the software components or functions described in thisapplication may be implemented as software code to be executed by aprocessor using any suitable computer language such as, for example,Java, C++ or Perl using, for example, conventional or object-orientedtechniques. The software code may be stored as a series of instructionsor commands on a computer readable medium for storage and/ortransmission, suitable media include random access memory (RAM), a readonly memory (ROM), a magnetic medium such as a hard-drive or a floppydisk, or an optical medium such as a compact disk (CD) or DVD (digitalversatile disk), flash memory, and the like. The computer readablemedium may be any combination of such storage or transmission devices.Computer readable media encoded with the software/program code may bepackaged with a compatible device or provided separately from otherdevices (e.g., via Internet download). Any such computer readable mediummay reside on or within a single computer program product (e.g. a harddrive or an entire computer system), and may be present on or withindifferent computer program products within a system or network. Acomputer system may include a monitor, printer, or other suitabledisplay for providing any of the results mentioned herein to a user.

While various embodiments have been described herein, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present applicationshould not be limited by any of the embodiments described herein, butshould be defined only in accordance with the following andlater-submitted claims and their equivalents.

1. A method of providing data in an information feed, the methodcomprising: receiving data at a computing device configured to providecomputing services via a network; separating the data into a pluralityof data entries to define structured data, each data entry having aplurality of data fields, each data field being capable of beingassigned a respective data value, at least some of the data fields beingassigned a respective data value selected from the received data; andstoring the structured data in a database in an on-demand computingservices environment, references to the structured data capable of beingstored as feed items in one or more feed tables in a database, the feeditems capable of being published in an information feed displayed on adisplay device.
 2. The method recited in claim 1, the method furthercomprising: identifying a first data type for a first one of the datafields, the first data type limiting the data values that can beassigned to the first data field.
 3. The method recited in claim 2,wherein identifying the first data type comprises: analyzing a pluralityof values assigned to the first data field to determine an attributecommon to the plurality of values; and selecting the first data typefrom a plurality of data types based on the common attribute.
 4. Themethod recited in claim 2, the method further comprising: for a selecteddata entry, determining whether a value assigned to the first data fieldfor the selected data entry is of the first data type.
 5. The methodrecited in claim 4, the method further comprising: when it is determinedthat the value assigned to the first data field for the selected dataentry is not of the first data type, outputting a message indicating anerror condition.
 6. The method recited in claim 1, the method furthercomprising: associating the structured data with a data recordaccessible via the on-demand computing services environment, anindication of the structured data being displayed in a user interfacecomponent when the data record is retrieved.
 7. The method recited inclaim 1, the method further comprising: establishing a permissionconfiguration for the structured data, the permission configurationcomprising an indication of one or more users of theorganization-specific social networking system who may view or edit thestructured data.
 8. The method recited in claim 7, the method furthercomprising: receiving a data edit request via a network, the data editrequest comprising a request to modify the structured data to createmodified structured data.
 9. The method recited in claim 8, the methodfurther comprising: determining whether the data edit request complieswith the established permission configuration; and when the data editrequest complies with the established permission configuration,modifying the structured data in accordance with the data edit request,and publishing the modified structured data to the information feed. 10.The method recited in claim 1, wherein each of the data entriescomprises a row in the database, and wherein each of the data fieldscomprising a column in the database.
 11. The method recited in claim 1,wherein the database is a multitenant database accessible to a pluralityof tenants via the on-demand computing services environment.
 12. Asystem for providing data in an information feed, the system comprising:a computing device configured to: receiving data at a computing deviceconfigured to provide computing services via a network; and separatingthe data into a plurality of data entries to define structured data,each data entry having a plurality of data fields, each data field beingcapable of being assigned a respective data value, at least some of thedata fields being assigned a respective data value selected from thereceived data; and a database system accessible via an on-demandcomputing services environment, the database system being configured tostore the structured data, references to the structured data capable ofbeing stored as feed items in one or more feed tables in the databasesystem, the feed items capable of being published in an information feeddisplayed on a display device.
 13. The system recited in claim 12, thecomputing device being further configured to: identify a first data typefor a first one of the data fields, the first data type limiting thedata values that can be assigned to the first data field.
 14. The systemrecited in claim 13, wherein identifying the first data type comprises:analyzing a plurality of values assigned to the first data field todetermine an attribute common to the plurality of values; and selectingthe first data type from a plurality of data types based on the commonattribute.
 15. The system recited in claim 13, the computing devicebeing further configured to: for a selected data entry, determinewhether a value assigned to the first data field for the selected dataentry is of the first data type.
 16. The system recited in claim 15, thecomputing device being further configured to: when it is determined thatthe value assigned to the first data field for the selected data entryis not of the first data type, output a message indicating an errorcondition.
 17. The system recited in claim 12, the computing devicebeing further configured to: associate the structured data with a datarecord accessible via the on-demand computing services environment, anindication of the structured data being displayed in a user interfacecomponent when the data record is retrieved.
 18. The system recited inclaim 12, the computing device being further configured to: establish apermission configuration for the structured data, the permissionconfiguration comprising an indication of one or more users of theorganization-specific social networking system who may view or edit thestructured data.
 19. The system recited in claim 18, the computingdevice being further configured to: receive a data edit request via anetwork, the data edit request comprising a request to modify thestructured data to create modified structured data.
 20. The systemrecited in claim 19, the computing device being further configured to:determine whether the data edit request complies with the establishedpermission configuration; and when the data edit request complies withthe established permission configuration, modify the structured data inaccordance with the data edit request, and publishing the modifiedstructured data to the information feed.
 21. One or more computerreadable media having instructions stored thereon for performing amethod of providing data in an information feed, the method comprising:receiving data at a computing device configured to provide computingservices via a network; separating the data into a plurality of dataentries to define structured data, each data entry having a plurality ofdata fields, each data field being capable of being assigned arespective data value, at least some of the data fields being assigned arespective data value selected from the received data; and storing thestructured data in a database in an on-demand service environment,references to the structured data capable of being stored as feed itemsin one or more feed tables in a database, the feed items capable ofbeing published in an information feed displayed on a display device.22. The one or more computer readable media recited in claim 21, themethod further comprising: identifying a first data type for a first oneof the data fields, the first data type limiting the data values thatcan be assigned to the first data field.
 23. The one or more computerreadable media recited in claim 22, wherein identifying the first datatype comprises: analyzing a plurality of values assigned to the firstdata field to determine an attribute common to the plurality of values;and selecting the first data type from a plurality of data types basedon the common attribute.
 24. The one or more computer readable mediarecited in claim 22, the method further comprising: for a selected dataentry, determining whether a value assigned to the first data field forthe selected data entry is of the first data type.
 25. The one or morecomputer readable media recited in claim 24, the method furthercomprising: when it is determined that the value assigned to the firstdata field for the selected data entry is not of the first data type,outputting a message indicating an error condition.
 26. The one or morecomputer readable media recited in claim 21, the method furthercomprising: associating the structured data with a data recordaccessible via the on-demand computing services environment, anindication of the structured data being displayed in a user interfacecomponent when the data record is retrieved.